A Buddhist catechism

THE I

BUDDHIST
CATECHISM

By
HENRY S OLCOTT

^ Publication Division
MINISTRf OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
135, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA

Nam6 fossa Bhagavatd Arahatd SammS

THE

BUDDHIST CATECHISM

BY
HENRY S. OLCOTT

RESIDENT-FOUNDER OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist
Schoolsby H. SUMANGALA, Pradhana Nayaka
Sthavira, High Priest of Sripada and the Western
Province and Principal of the Vidyodaya Pirrftna

Publications Division
Ministry of Cultural Affairs

135, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7
Sri Lanka

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

tioof

A 4ttftO— 2,518 (80/04)

DEDICATION

IN token of respect and affection I dedicate to my
counsellor and friend of many years, Hikkaduwe
Sumangala, Pradhana Nayaka Sthavira and High Priest
of Adam's Peak (Sripada) and the Western Province,
THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM, in its revised form.

H. S. OLCOTT.
ADYAR, 1903.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRTY-THIRD EDITION

IN the working out of my original plan, I have added
more questions and answers in the text of each new
English edition of the Catechism, leaving it to its
translators to render them in to whichever of the other
vernaculars they may be working in. The unpretending
aim in view is to give so succinct and yet comprehensive
a digest of Buddhistic history, ethics and philosophy as
to enable beginners to understand knd appreciate the
noble ideal taught by the Budcjha, and thus make it
easier for them to follow out the Dharma in its details.
In the present edition a great many new questions and
answers have been introduced, while the matter has been
grouped within five categories, viz. : (1) The Life of the
Buddha ; (2) the Doctrine ; (3) the Sangha, or monastic
order ; (4) a brief history of Buddhism, its Councils and
propaganda ; (5) some reconciliation of Buddhism with
science. This, it is believed, will largely increase the
value of the little book, and make it even more suitable
for use in Buddhist schools, of which, in Ceylon, over
one hundred have already been opened by the Sinhalese
people under the general supervision of the Theosophical
Society. In preparing this edition I have received
valuable help from some of my oldest and best
qualified Sinhalese colleagues. The original edition
was gone over with me word by word, by that
eminent scholar and bhikkhu, H. Sumangala, Pracjhana
Nayaka, and the Assistant Principal of his Pali College
at Colombo, Heyantuduve Anunayaka Terunnanse ;

iv

and the High Priest has also kindly scrutinised the present
revision and given me invaluable points to embody. It
has the merit, therefore, of being a fair presentation of
the Buddhism of the "Southern Church," chiefly derived
from first-hand sources. The Catechism has been
published in twenty languages, mainly by Buddhists,
for Budcjhists.

H. S. O.

ADYAR, llth May, 1897.

CERTIFICATE TO THE FIRST EDITION

VBDYODAYA COLLEGE,
Colombo, 1th July, 1881.

I HEREBY certify that I have carefully examined the
Sinhalese version of the Catechism prepared by Colonel
H. S. Olcott, and that the same is in agreement with
the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church. I re
commend the work to teachers in Buddhist schools,
and to all others who may wish to impart information
to beginners about the essential features of our religion.

H. SUMANGALA,

High Priest ofSripatfa and Galle,
and Principal of the Vidyofaya
Pirivena.

VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,
'April!, 1897.

I HAVE gone over the thirty-third (English) edition of the
Catechism, with the help of interpreters, and confirm
my recommendation for its use in Buddhist schools^

H. SUMANGALA

PREFACE

TO THE FORTIETH EDITION

THE popularity of this little work is proved by the
constant demand for new editions, in English and other
languages. In looking over the matter for the present
edition, I have found very little to change or to add, for
the work seems to present a very fair idea of the contents
of Southern Buddhism ; and, as my object is never to
write an extended essay on the subject, I resist the
temptation to wander off into amplifications of details
which, however interesting to the student of comparative
religion, are useless in a rational scheme of elementary
instruction.

The new Sinhalese version (38th edition) which is being
prepared by my respected friend, D. B. Jayatilaka,
Principal of Ananda (Budcjhist) College, Colombo, is
partly printed, but cannot be completed until he is
relieved of some of the pressure upon his time. The
Tamil version (41st edition) has been undertaken by
the leaders of the Panchama community of Madras,
and will shortly issue from the press. The Spanish
version (39th edition) is in the hands of my friend,
Sehor Xifre, and the French one (37th edition) in those
of Commandant Courmes.

I am afraid we shall have to wait long for this help
to come from the Bu4dhist bhikkhus, almost the only
learned men of Ceylon ; at least I have not been able
during an intimate intercourse of twenty-two years, to

Tii

arouse their zeal. It has always seemed to me incon
gruous that an American, making no claims at all to
scholarship, should be looked to by the Sinhalese to
help them teach the (Jharma to their children ; and
as I believe I have said in an earlier edition, I only
consented to write THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM after
I had found that no bhikkhu would undertake it.
Whatever its demerits, I can at least say that the work
contains the essence of some 15,000 pages of Butjtfhist
teaching that I have read in connexion with my work.

H. S. O.
ADYAR,

1th February, 1903.

viii

PREFACE

TO THE FORTY-SECOND EDITION

THE writer of this Catechism has passed away from
earth, but, before he left the body, he had arranged
with the High Priest Sumangala to make some small
corrections in the text. These are incorporated in the
present edition by the High Priest's wish, expressed to
me in Colombo, in November, 1907.

I have not altered the numbering of the questions
as it might cause confusion in a class to change the
numbers, if some pupils had the older editions and
some the new.

ANNIE BESANT.
ADYAR,
lltk February, \9W.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRTY-SIXTH EDITION

THE popularity of this little work seems undiminished,
edition after edition being called for. While the pre
sent one was in the press a second German edition,
re-translated by the learned Dr. Erich Bischoff, was
published at Leipzig, by the Griebens Co., and a
third translation into French, by my old friend and
colleague, Commandant. D.. A. Courmes, was being got
ready at Paris. A fresh version: in Sinhalese is also
preparing at Colombo. It is very gratifying to a de
clared Buddhist like myself to read what so ripe a
scholar as Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author of Fragments of
a Faith Forgotten, Pistis Sophia, and many other
works on Christian origins, thinks of the value of the
compilation. He writes in the Theosophical Review :
" It has been translated into no less than twentyvdif-
ferent languages, and may be said without J;jie faint
est risk of contradiction, to have been the busiest
instrument of Buddhist propaganda for many a day in
the annals of that long somnolent dharma. The least
that learned Buddhists of Ceylon can do to repay the
debt of gratitude they owe to Colonel Olcott and,
other members of the Theosophical Society who have
worked for them, is to bestir themselves to throw some
light on their own origins and doctrines. "

So the work goes on, and by this unpretending
agency the teachings of the Buddha Dharma are being
carried throughout the world.

H. S. O.

ADYAR, 1th January, 1905.

CONTENTS

PAGB

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 1

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 22

THE SANGHA 60 /

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 67

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 76
APPENDIX— The Fourteen Propositions accepted by
the Northern and Southern Buddhists as a

Platform of Unity 88

xi

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

PART I

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

• •

1. Question. Of what religiorf- are you ?
Answer. The Budcjhist.

irThe word "religion" is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism
which is not a religion, but a moral philosophy, as I have shown
later on. But by common usage the word has been applied to all
groups of people who profess a special moral doctrine, and is so
employed by statisticians. The Sinhalese Bu44hists have never
yet had any conception of what Europeans imply in the etymolo
gical construction of the Latin root of this term. In their cre*I
there is no such thing as a "binding" in the Christian sense — a
submission to or merging of self in a Divine Being. Agama is
their vernacular word to express their relation to Bu<J<Jhism and
the BUDDHA. It is pure Samskrt, and means "approach, or
coming" ; and as "Buddha" is enlightenment, the compound word
by which they indicate Buddhism — Bua'a'hagama — would be pro
perly rendered as "an approach or coming to enlightenment,"
or possibly as a following of the Doctrine of S!KYAMUNI. The
missionaries, finding Agama ready to their hand, adopted it as the
equivalent for " religion " ; and Christianity is written by them
Christiandgama, whereas it should be Christianibantfhana, for
barujhana is the etymological equivalent for "religion". The
name Vibhajja vadt— one who analyses —is another name given
to a Buddhist, and Adbayuraa"! is a third. With this explanation, I
continue to employ under protest the familiar word when speaking
of Buddhistic philosophy, for the convenience of the ordinary
reader.

2 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

2. Q. What is Buddhism ?

A. It is a body of teachings given out by
the great personage known as the Budtjha.

3. Q. Is "Buddhism" the best name for this
teaching ?

A. No ; that is only a western term : the
best name for it is Bauddha Dharma.

4. Q. Would you call a person a Buddhist who
had merely been born of Buddhist parents ?

A. Certainly not. A Buddhist is one who not
only professes belief in the Buddha as the noblest of
Teachers, in the Doctrine preached by Him, and in
the Brotherhood of Arhats, but practises His precepts
in daily life.

5. Q. What is a male lay Buddhist called ?
A. An Upasaka.

6. Q. What a female ?
A. An Upasika.

7. Q. When was this doctrine first preached ?

A. There is some disagreement as to the actual
date, but accoiding to the Sinhalese Scriptures it was
in the year 2513 of the (present) Kali-Yuga.

8. Q. Give the important dates in the last birth
of the Founder ?

A. He was born under the constellation Visa
on a Tuesday in May, in the year 2478 (K.Y.) ; he
retired to the jungle in the year 2506 ; became
Bud<Jha in 2513 ; and, passing out of the round of re
births, entered Paranirvana in the year 2558, aged

THE LIFE OF THE BUTJpHA 3

eighty years. Each of these events happened on a
day of full moon, so all are conjointly celebrated in
the great festival of the full-moon of the oronth Wesak
Vaisdkha) corresponding to the month of May.

9. Q. Was the Buddha God ?

A. No. Buddha Dharma teaches no " divine "
incarnation.

10. Q. Was he a man ?

A. Yes ; but the wisest, noblest and most holy
being, who had developed himself in the course of
countless births far beyond all other beings, the pre
vious BUDDHAS alone excepted.

11. Q. Were there other Buddhas before him ?
A. Yes ; as will be explained later on.

12. Q. Was Buddha his name ?

A* No. It is the name of a condition or state
of mind, of the mind after it has reached the culmina
tion of development.

13. Q. What is its meaning ?

A. Enlightened ; or, he who has the all-perfect
wisdom. The Pali phrase is Sabbannu, the One of
Boundless Knowledge. In Samskrt it is Sarvajna.

14. Q. What was the Buddha's real name then ?

A. SIDDHARTHA was his royal name, and
GAUTAMA, or OOTAMA, his family name. He was Prince
of Kapilavastu and belonged to the illustrious family
of the Okkaka, of the Solar race.,

4 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

15. Q. Who were his father and mother ?

A. King Sucjcjhocjana and Queen Mayft, called
Maha Maya.

16. Q. What people did this King reign over ?

A. The Sakyas ; and Aryan tribe of Kshattriyas .

17. Q. Where was Kapilavastu ?

A. In India, one hundred miles north-east of
the City of Benares, and about forty miles from the
Himalaya mountains. It is situated in the Nepal Terai.
The city is now in ruins.

18. Q. On what river ?

A. The Rohini, now called the Rohana.

19. Q. Tell me again when Prince Sitfdhartha was
born ?

A. Six hundred and twenty-three years before
the Christian era.

20. Q. Is the exact spot known ?

A. It is now identified beyond question. An
archaeologist in the service of the Government of India
has discovered in the jungle of the Nepal Terai a
stone pillar erected by the mighty Bu44&ist sovereign,
Asoka, to mark the very spot. The place was known
in those times as the Lumbini Garden.

21 . Q. Had the Prince luxuries and splendours likt
other Princes ?

A. He had ; his father, the King, built him
tiiree magnificient palaces- — for the three Indian seasons
—the cold, the hot, and the rainy— of nine, five, and
three stories respectively, and handsomely decorated.

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 5

22. Q. How were they situated ?

A. Around each palace were gardens of the
most beautiful and fragrant flowers, with fountains of
spouting water, the trees full of singing birds, and
peacocks strutting over the ground.

23. Q. Was he living alone ?

A. No ; in his sixteenth year he was married
to the Princess Yasodhara, daughter of the King
Suprabuddha. Many beatuiful maidens, skilled in
dancing and music, were also in continual attendance
to amuse him.

24. Q. How did he get his wife ?

A. In the ancient Kshattriya or warrior
fashion, by overcoming all competitiors in games and
exercises of skill and prowess, and then selecting,
Yaso<Jhara out of all the young princesses, whose
fathers had brought them to the tournament or
mela.

25. Q. How, amid all this luxury, could a Prince
become all-wise ?

A. He had such natural wisdom that when but
a child he seemed to understand all arts and sciences
almost without study. He had the best teachers, but
they could teach him nothing that he did not seem to
comprehend immediately.

26. Q. Did he become Buddha in his splendid
palaces ?

A. No. He left all and went alone into the
jungle.

27. Q. Why did he do this ?

f THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

A. To discover the cause of our sufferings
and the way to escape from them.

28. Q. Was it not selfishness that made him do
this ?

A. No ; it was boundless love for all beings
that made him devote himself to their good.

29. Q. But how did he acquire this boundless love ?
A. Throughout numberless births and aeons of

years he had been cultivating this love, with the
unfaltering determination to become a Bu44ha.

30. Q. What did he this time relinquish ?

A. His beautiful palaces, his riches, luxuries
and pleasures, his soft beds, fine dresses, rich food,
and his kingdom ; he even left his beloved wife and
only son, Rahula.

31. Q. Did any other man ever sacrifice so much
for our sake ?

A. Not one in this present world -period : this is
why Buddhists so love him, and why good Buddhists
try to be like him.

32. Q. But have not many men given up all earthly
blessings, and even life itself, for the sake of their
fellow-men ?

A. Certainly. But we believe that this surpas"
sing unselfishness and love for humanity showed them"
selves in his renouncing the bliss of Nirvana countless
ages ago, when he was born as the Brahmana
Sumedha, in the time of Dipankara Bu<J4ha * he had
then reached the stage where he might have entered
Nirvana, had he not loved mankind more than him-

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 7

self. This renunciation implied his voluntarily endur
ing the miseries of earthly lives until he became
Bu4dha, for the sake of teaching all beings the way
to emancipation and to give rest to the world.

33. Q. How old was he when he went to the jungle ?
A. He was in his twenty-ninth year.

34. Q. What finally determined him to leave all
that men usually love so much and go to the jungle ?

A. A Deva1 appeared to him when driving
out in his chariot, under four impressive forms, on
four different occasions.

35. Q. What were these different forms ?

A. Those of a very old man broken down by
age, of a sick man, of a decaying corpse, and of a
dignified hermit.

36. Q. Did he alone see these ?

A. No, his attendant, Channa , also saw them.

37. Q. Why should these sights, so familiar to
everybody, have caused him to go to the jungle ?

A. We often see such sights : he had not seen
them, so they made a deep impression on his mind.

38. Q. Why had he not also seen them ?

A. The Brahmana astrologers had foretold at
his birth that he would one day resign his kingdom and
become a BUDDHA. The King, his father, not wishing
to lose an heir to his kingdom, had carefully prevent
ed his seeing any sights that might suggest to him

1 See the definition of tfeva given later.

8 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

human misery and death. No one was allowed even
to speak of such things to the Prince. He was almost
like a prisoner in his lovely palaces and flower gardens.
They were surrounded by high walls, and inside
everything was made as beautiful as possible, so that
he might not wish to go and see the sorrow and distress
that are in the world.

39. Q. Was he so kind-hearted that the King
feared he might really wish to leave everything for the
world's sake ?

A. Yes ; he seems to have felt for all beings
so strong a pity and love as that.

40. Q. And how did he expect to learn the cause
of sorrow in the jungle ?

A. By removing far away from all that could
prevent his thinking deeply of the causes of sorrow
and the nature of man.

41. Q. How did he escape from the palace ?

A. One night, when all were asleep, he arose,
took a last look at his sleeping wife and infant son ;
called Channa, mounted his favourite white horse
Kanthaka, and rode to the palace gate. The pevas
had thrown a deep sleep upon the King's guard who
watched the gate, so that they could not hear the noise
of the horse's hoofs.

42. Q. But the gate was locked, was it not ?

A. Yes ; but the pevas caused it to open
without the slightest noise, and he rode away into the
darkness.

THE LIFB ! OF THE BUppHA 9

43. Q. Whither did he go ?

A. To the river Anoma, a long way from,
Kapilavastu.

44. Q. What did he then do ?

A. He sprang from his horse, cut off his
beautiful hair with his sword, put on the yellow dress
of an ascetic, and giving his ornaments and horse to
Channa, ordered him to take them back to his father
the King.

45. Q. What then ?

A. He went afoot towards Rajagraha, the
capital city of King Bimbisara, of Magadha.

46. Q. Who visited him there ?

A. The King with his whole Court.1

46a. Q. Thence whither did he go ?

A. To Uruvela, near the present Mahabo<Jhi
Temple at Buddha Gaya.

47. Q. Why did he go there ?

A. In the forests were hermits^very wise
men, whose pupil he afterwards became, in the hope
of finding the knowledge of which he was in search.

48. Q. Of what religion were they ?

A. The Hindu religion : they were
Brahmanas2.

1 For an admirable account of this interview consult Dr. Paul
Cams' Gospel ofBucfflha, page 20, et seq.

2 The term Hindu, once a contemptuous term, used by the
Musaknans to designate the people of Sindh, whom they conquered,
is now used in an ecclesiastical sense.

10 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

49. Q. What did they teach ?

A. That by severe penances and torture of
the body a man may acquire perfect wisdom.

50. Q. Did the Prince find this to be so ?

A. No ; he learned their systems and practis
ed all their penances, but he could not thus discover
the cause of human sorrow and the way to absolute
emancipation.

51 . Q. What did he then do ?

A. He went away into the forest near Uruvela,
and spent six years in deep meditation, undergoing
the severest discipline in mortifying his body.

52. Q. Was he alone ?

A. No ; five Brahman companions attended
him.

53. Q. What were their names ?

A. Kondanna, Bhad<Jiya, Vappa, Mahanama,
and Assaji.

54. Q. What plan of discipline did he adopt to
open his mind to know the whole truth ?

A. He sat and meditated, concentrating his
mind upon, the higher problems of life, and shutting
out from his sight and hearing all that was likely to
interrupt his inward reflections.

55. Q. Did he fasti

A. Yes, through the whole period. He took
less and less food and water until, it is said, he ate
scarcely more than one grain of rice or of sesamum
seed each day.

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 11

56. Q. Did this give him the wisdom he longed for ?
A. No. He grew thinner and thinner in body

and fainter in strength until, one day ,as he was slowly
walking about and meditating, his vital force suddenly
left him and he fell to the ground unconscious.

57. Q. What did his companions think of that ?

A. They fancied he was dead ; but after a time
he revived.

58. Q. What then ?

A. The thought came to him that knowledge
could never be reached by mere fasting or bodly
suffering, but must be gained by the opening of the
mind. He had just barely escaped death from self-
starvation, yet had not obtained the Perfect Wisdom
So he decided to eat, that he might live at least long
enough to become wise.

59. Q. Who gave him food ?

A. He received food from Sujata, a nobleman's
daughter, who saw him sitting at the foot of a
nyagrocjha (banyan) tree. He arose, took his alms-
bowl, bathed in the river Neranjara, ate the food,
and went into the jungle.

60. Q. What did he do there ?

A. Having formed his determination after
these reflections, he went at evening to the Bodhi, or
Asvattha tree, where the present Mahabo<Jhi Temple
stands.

61. Q. What did he do there ?

A. He determined not to leave the spot until
he attained perfact wisdom.

12 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

62. Q. At which side of the tree did he seat him
self?

A. The side facing the east.1

63. Q. What did he obtain that night ?

A. The knowledge of his previous births, of
the causes of rebirths, and of the way to extinguish
desires. Just before the break of the next day his
mind was entirely opened, like the full — blown lotus
flower ; the light of supreme knowledge, or the Four
Truths, poured in upon him. He had become BUUDDHA
—the Enlightened, the all-knowing— the Sarvajna.

64. Q. Had he at last discovered the cause of
human misery ?

A. At last he had . As the light of the morning
sun chases away the darkness of night, and reveals to
sight the trees, fields, rocks, seas, rivers, animals,
men and all things, so the full light of knowledge rose
in his mind, and he saw at one glance the causes of
human suffering and the way to escape from them.

65. Q. Had he great struggles before gaming
this perfect wisdom ?

A. Yes, mighty and terrible struggles. He had
to conquer in his body all those natural defects and
human appetites and desires that prevent our seeing

1No reason is given in the canonical books for the choice of this
side of the tree, though an explanation is to be found in the popular
legends upon which the books of Bishop Bigandet and other
European comuientratos are based. There are always certain
influences coming upon us from the different quarters of the sky.
Sometimes the influence from one quarter will be best, sometimes
that from another quarter. But the Buddha thought that the
perfected man is superior to all extraneous influences.

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 13

the truth. He had to overcome all the bad influences
of the sinful world around him. Like a soldier fight
ing desperately in battle against many enemies, he
struggled : like a hero who conquers, he gained his
object, and the secret of human misery was dis
covered.

66. Q. What use did he make of the knowledge
thus gained ?

A. At first he was reluctant to teach it to
the people at large.

67. Q. Why ?

A. Because of its profound importance and
sublimity. He feared that but few people would
understand it.

68. Q. What made him alter this view ? 1

A. He saw that it was his duty to teach what
he had learnt as clearly and simply as possible, and
trust to the truth impressing itself upon the popular
mind in proportion to each one's individual Karma.
It was the only way of salvation, and every being had
an equal right to have it pointed out to him. So he
determined to begin with his five late companions,
who had abandoned him when he broke his fast.

69. Q. Where did he find them ?

A. In the deer-park at Isipatana, near Benares.

70. Q. Can he spot be now identified 1

A. Yes, a partly ruined stupa, or dagoba, is
still standing on that very spot.

1 The ancient story is that the God Brahma himself implored
him not to withhold the glorious truth.

1 4 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

71. Q. Did those five companions readily listen to
him*!

A. At first, no ; but so great was the spiritual
beauty of his appearance, so sweet and convincing
his teaching, that they soon turned and gave him the
closest attention.

72. Q. What effect did this discourse have upon
them ?

A. The aged Kondanna, one Who "under
stood " (Anna), was the first to lose his prejudices,
accept the Buddha's teaching, become his disciple, and
enter the Path leading to Arhatship. The other four
soon followed his example.

73. Q. Who were his next converts ?

A. A rich young layman, named Yasa, and
his father, a wealthy merchant. By the end of three
months the disciples numbered sixty persons.

74. Q. Who were the first women lay disciples ?
A. The mother and wife of Yasa.

75. Q. What did the Bud$ha do at that time ? x
A. He called the disciples together, gave

them full instructions, and sent them out in all directions
to preach his doctrine.

76. Q. What was the essence of it 1

A. That the way of emancipation lies in
leading the holy life and following the rules laid down,
which will be explained later on.

lBrahmanism not being offered to non-Hindus, Butftfhism is
consequently, the oldest missionary religion in the world. The
early missionaries endured every hardship, cruelty, and persecution,
with unfaltering courage.

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

15

77. Q. Tell me what name he goes to this course
of life ?

A. The Noble Eightfold Path.

78. Q. How is it called in the Pall language ?
A. Ariyo atthangiko maggo.

79. Q. Whither did the Buddha then go ?
A. To Uruvela

80. Q. What happened there ?

A. He converted a man named Kashyapa,
renowned for his learning and teacher of the Jatilas,
a great sect of fire-worshippers, all of whom became
also his followers.

81. Q. Who was his next great convert ?
A. King Bimbisara, of Maga<Jha

82. Q. Which two of the Buddha's most learned and
beloved disciples were converted at about this time ?

A. Sariputra and Moggallana, formerly chief
disciples of Sanjaya, the ascetic.

83. Q. For what did they become renowned ?

A. Sariputra for his profound learning
(Prajnd), Moggallana for his exceptional spiritual powers

84. Q. Are these wonder-working powsrs mira-
wlous ?

A. No, but natural to all men and capable of
being developed by a certain course of training.

16 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

85. Q. Did the Buddha hear again from his family
after leaving them ?

A. Oh yes, seven years later, while he was
leving at Rajagrha, his father King Suddhodana, sent
a message to request him to come and let him see him
again before he died.

86. Q. Did he go ?

A. Yes. His father went with all his relations
and ministers to meet him and received him with great joy

*

87. Q. Did he consent to resume his old rank ?

A. No. In all sweetness he explained to his
father that the Prince Sidtjhartha had passed out of
existence, as such, and was now changed into the condi
tion of a Bud<Jha, to whom all beings were equally akin
and equally dear. Instead of ruling over one tribe or
nation, like an earthly king, he, through his Dharma,
would win the hearts of all men to be his followers.

88. Q. Did he see Yasodhara his son Rahula ?

A. Yes. His wife, who had mourned for him
with deepest love, wept bitterly. She also sent Rahula
to ask him to give him his inheritance, as the son of a
prince.

89. Q. What happened ?

A. To one and all he preached the Dharma as
the cure for all sorrows. His father, son, wife, Anan£a
(his half-brother), Deva4atta (his cousin and brother-in
law), were all converted and became his disiciples. Two
other famous ones were Anuru44^a> afterwards a great
metaphysician, and Upali, a barber, afterwards the
greatest authority on Vinaya. Both of these gained
great renown.

THE LIFE OF THE BUpl?HA 17

90. Q. Who was the first Bhikkhum ?

A. Prajapati, the aunt and foster-mother of
Prince Siddhartha. With her, Yasodhara and many
other ladies were admitted into the Order as Bhikkhunis
or female devotees.

91. Q. What effect did the taking up of the religious
life by his sons, Siddhartha and Ananda, his nephew,
Pevadatta, his son's wife, Yasodhara, and his grandson,
Rdhula, have upon the old King Suddhodana ?

A. It grieved him much and he complained to
the Buddha, who then made it a rule of the Order that no
person should thenceforth be ordained without the
consent of his parents if alive.

92. Q. Tell me about the fate ofQevadatta ?

A. He was a man of great intelligence and
rapidly advanced in the knowledge of the Dharma, but
being also extremely ambitious, he came to envy and
hate the Buddha, and at last plotted to kill him. He
also influenced Ajatashatru, son of King Bimbisara, to
murder his noble father, and to become his —
Devadatta's — disciple.

93. Q. Did he do any injury to the Buddha ?

A. Not the least, but the evil he plotted against
him recoiled upon himself, and he met with an awful
death.

94. Q. For how many years was the Bufyha
engaged in teaching ?

A. Forty-five years, during which time he
preached a great many discourses. His custom and
that of his disciples was to travel and preach during the

18 THE BUppHIST CATECHISM

eight dry months, but during the season of Was — the
rains — he and they would stop in the pansulas and
viharas which had been built for them by various kings
and other wealthy converts.

95. Q. Which were the most famous of these
buildings ?

A. Jetavanarama ; Veluvanarama ; Pubba-
rama ; Nigrodharama and Isipatanarama.

96. Q. What kind of people were converted by him
and his disciples ?

A. People of all ranks, nations and castes ;
rajas and coolies, rich and poor, mighty and humble,
the illiterate and the most learned. His doctrine was
suited to all.

97. Q. Give some account of the decease of the
Buddha ?

A. In the forty-fifth season after his attaining
Buddhahood, on the full-moon day of May, knowing
that his end was near, he came at evening to Kusinagara,
a place about one hundred and twenty miles from
Benares. In the sala grove of the Mallas, the
Upavartana of Kusinagara, between two sala trees,
he had his bedding spread with the head towards the
north according to the ancient custom. He lay upon
it, and with his mind perfectly clear, gave his final
instructions to his disciples and bade them farewell.

98. Q. Did he also make new converts in those last
tours ?

A. Yes, a very important one, a great Brahmana
pandit named Subha^ra. He had also preached to the
Malla princes and their followers.

THE LIFE OF TfiE BUDDHA 1$

99. Q. At day-break what happened ?

A. He passed into the interior condition of
Samadhi and thence into Nirvana.

100. Q. What were his last words to his disciples ?

A. " Bhikkhus ", he said, " I now impress it
upon you, the parts and powers of man must be
dissolved. Work out your salvation with diligence ".

101. Q. What convincing proof have we that the
Budtfha, formerly Prince Siddhartha, was a historical
personage ?

A. His existence is apparently as clearly
proved as that of any other character of ancient history.

102. Q. Name some of the proofs ?

A. (1) The testimony of those who personally
knew him.

(2) The discovery of places and the remains
of buildings mentioned in the narrative of his time.

(3) The rock-inscriptions, pillars and
dagobas made in memory of him by sovereigns who
were near enough to his time to be able to verify the
story of his life.

(4) The unbroken existence of the Sangha
which he founded, and their possession of the facts of
his life transmitted from generation to generation from
the beginning.

20 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

(5) The fact that in the very year of his
death and at various times subsequently, conventions
and councils of the Sangha were held, for the
verification of the actual teachings of the Founder, and
the handing down of those verified teachings from
teacher to pupil, to the present day.

(6) After his cremation his relics were divided
among eight kings and a stupa was erected over each
portion. The portion given to King Ajatashatru, and
by him covered with a stupa at Rajagrha, was taken,
less that two centuries ; later, by the Emperor Asoka and
distributes throughout his Empire. He of course, had
ample means of knowing whether the relics were those
of the Buddha or not, since they had been in charge
of the royal house of Patna from the beginning.

(7) Many of the Buddha's disciples, being
Arhats and thus having control over their vital powers,
must have lived to great ages, and there was nothing
to have prevented two or three of them, in succession
to each other, to have covered the whole period
between the death of the Buddha and the reign of Asoka,
and thus to have enabled the latter to get from his
contemporary every desired attestation of the fact of
the Bucjdha's life.1

(8) The " Mahavansa, " the best authenticated
ancient history known to us, records the events of
Sinhalese history to the reign of King Vijaya, 543 B.C.
— almost the time of the Buddha — and gives most

*At the Second Council there were two pupils of Ananda, cons-
sequently centenarians, while in Asoka's Council there were pupils
of those pupils,

21

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

particulars of his life, as well as those of the Emperor
Asoka and all other sovereigns related to Buddhistic
history.

103. Q. By what names of respect is the Buddha
called ?

A. Sakyamuni (the Sakya Sage) ; Sakya-
Simha (the Sakyan Lion) ; Sugata (the Happy One) ;
Sattha (the Teacher) ; Jina (the Conqueror) ; Bhaga-
vat (the Blessed One) ; Lokanatha (the Lord of the
World) ; Sarvajfia (the Omniscient One) ; pliarmaraja
(the King of Truth) ; Tathagata (the Great Being),
etc.

4—

PART II
THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE

106. Q. What is the meaning of the word Buddhat

A. The enlightened, or he who has the
perfect wisdom.

107. Q. You have said that there were other
Buddhas before this one ?

A. Yes; our belief is that, under the opera
tion of eternal causation, a Buddha takes birth at
intervals, when mankind have become plunged into
misery through ignorance, and need the wisdom which
it is the function of a Buddha to teach. (See also
Q. 11.)

108. Q. How is a Buddha developed ?

A. A person, hearing and seeing one of the
Buddhas on earth, becomes seized with the determina
tion so to live that at some future time, when he shall
become fitted for it, he also will be a Buddha for the
guiding of mankind out of the cycle of rebirth.

109. Q. How does he proceed ?

A. Throughout that birth and every suc
ceeding one, he strives to subdue his passions, to gain-
wisdom by experience, and to develop his higher facul
ties. He thus grows by degrees wiser, nobler in
character, and stronger in virtue until, finally, after
numberless re-births he reaches the state when he can
become Perfected, Enlightened, All-wise, the ideal
Teacher of the human race.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 23

110. Q. While this gradual development is going on
throughout all these births, by what name do we call him ?

A. Bodhisat, or Bodhisattva. Thus the
Prince Siddhartha Gautama was a Bodhisattva up to
the moment when, under the blessed Bodhi tree at
Gaya, he became Buddha.

111. Q. Have we any account of his various rebirths
as a Bodhisajtva ?

A. In the Jdtakatthakatha, a book contain
ing stories of the Bodhisattva' s reincarnations there
are several hundred tales of that kind.

112. Q. What lesson do these stories teach ?

A. That a man can carry, throughout a long
series of reincarnations, one great good purpose
which enables him to conquer bad tendencies and
develop virtuous ones.

113. Q. Can we fix the number of reincarnations
through which a Bodhisattva must pass before he can
become a Buddha ;

A. Of course not : that depends upon his
natural character, the state of development to which
he has arrived when he forms the resolution to become
a Buddha, and other things.

114. Q. Have we a way of classifying Bddhisatt-
vas ? If so, explain it.

A. Bodhisattvas — the future Buddhas — are
divided into three classes.

115. Q. Proceed. How are these three kinds of

named ?

A. Pannadhika, or Udghatitajna — "he who
attains least quickly "; Saddhacjhika, or Vipachitajna

24 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

—"he who attains less quickly "; and Viryadhika,
or Gneyya — "he who attains quickly". The Pan-
nacjhika Bodhisats take the course of Intelligence ;
the Saddha^hika take the course of Faith ; the
Viryadhika take the course of energetic Action. The
first is guided by Intelligence and does not hasten ;
the second is full of Faith, and does not care to take
the guidance of Wisdom ; and the third never delays
to do what is good. Regardless of the consequence
to himself, he does it when he sees that it is best that it
should be done.

116. Q. When our Bodhisattva became Buddha,
what did he see was the cause of human misery ? Tell
me in one word.

A. Ignorance (Avidyd).
111. Q. Can you tell me the remedy ?

A. To dispel Ignorance and become wise
(Prajna).

118. Q. Why does ignorance cause suffering ?

A. Because it makes us prize what is not
worth prizing, grieve when we should not grieve,
consider real what is not real but only illusionary,
and pass our lives in the pursuit of worthless objects,
neglecting what is in reality most valuable.

119. Q. And what is that which is most valuable ?

A. To know the whole secret of man's
existence and destiny, so that we may estimate at no
more than their actual value this life and its relations ;
and so that we may live in a way to ensure the great
est happiness and the least suffering for our fellow-men
and ourselves.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 25

120. Q. What is the light that can dispel this
ignorance of ours and and remowe all sorrows ?

A. The knowledge of the "Four Noble
Truths," as the Buddha called them.

121. Q. Name these Four Noble Truths ?

A. 1. The miseries of evolutionary existence
resulting in births and deaths, life after life.

2. The cause productive of misery, which
is the selfish desire, ever renewed, of satisfying on
self, without being able ever to secure that end.

3. The destruction of that desire, or the
estranging of one's self from it.

4. The means of obtaining this destruc
tion of desire.

122. Q. Tell me some things that cause sorrow ?
A. Birth, decay, illness, death, separation

from objects we love, association with those who
are repugnant, craving for what cannot be
obtained.

123. Q. Do these differ with each individual ?

A. Yes : but all men suffer from them in
degree.

124. Q. How can we escape the sufferings which
result from unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings ?

A. By complete conquest over, and destruc-
tion of, this eager thirst for life and its pleasures, which
causes sorrow.

125. Q. How may we gain such a conquest ?

A. By following the Noble Eight-fold Path
which the Buddha discovered and pointed out.

26 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

125. Q. what do you mean by that word : what
is this Noble Eight-fold Path ? (For the Pali name see
Q. 79).

A. The eight parts of this path are called
ahgas. They are : 1 . Right Belief (as to the law of
Causation, or Karma) ; 2. Right Thought ; 3. Right
Speech ; 4. Right Action ; 5. Right Means of Live
lihood ; 6. Right Exertion ; 7. Right Remembrance
and Self-discipline ; 8. Right Concentration of
Thought. The man who keeps these angas in mind
and follows them will be free from sorrow and
ultimately reach salvation.

127. Q. Can you give a better word for salvation ?
A. Yes, emancipation.

128. Q. Emancipation, then from what ?

A. Emancipation from the miseries of earthly
existence and of rebirths, all of which are due to
ignorance and impure lusts and cravings.

129. Q. And when this salvation or emancipation
is attained^ what do we reach ?

A. NIRVANA.

130. Q. What is Nirvana ?

A. A condition of total cessation of changes,
of perfect rest, of the absence of desire and illusion
and sorrow, of the total obliteration of everything
that goes to make up the physical man. Before
reaching Nirvana man is constantly being reborn ;
when he reaches Nirvana he is born no more.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 27

131. Q. Where can be found a learned discussion of
the word Nirvana and a list of the other names by which
the old Pall writers attempt to define it ?

A. In the famous Dictionary of the Pall
Language, by the late Mr. R. C. Childers, is a complete
list.1

132. Q. But some people imagine that Nirvana is
some sort of heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism
teach that ?

A. No. When Kutadanta asked the Buddha
"Where is Nirvana," he replied that it was "wherever
the precepts are obeyed "

133. Q. What causes us to be reborn ?

A. The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., trshna ;
Pali, tanha) for things that belong to the state of
personal existence in the material world. This
unquenched thirst for physical existence (bhdva) is a
force, and has a creative power in itself so strong that
it draws the being back into mundane life.

134. Q. Are our rebirths in any way affected by
the nature of our unsatisfied desires ?

A. Yes ; and by our individual merits or
demerits.

135. Q. Does our merit or demerit control the state,
condition or form in which we shall be re-born ?

A. It does. The broad rule is that if we
have an excess of merit we shall be well and happily

1Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic view of the Nirvanic
state, regarding it as annihilation. Later students disagree with
him.

28

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

born the next time ; if an excess of demerit, our next
birth will be wretched and full of suffering.

136. Q. One chief pillar of Buddhistic doctrine is,
then, the idea that every effect is the result of an actual
cause, is it not ?

A. It is ; of a cause either immediate or
remote.

137. Q. What do we call this causation ?

A. Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that
!s, action. It means that our own actions or deeds
bring upon us whatever of joy or misery we
experience.

138. Q. Can a bad man escape from the outwork-
ings of his Karma ?

A. The Dhammapada says : "There exist,
no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea,
neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an
(evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."

139. Q. Can a good man escape ?

A. As the result of deeds of peculiar merit,
a man may attain certain advantages of place, body,
environment and teaching in his next stage of
progress, which ward off the effects of bad Karma and
help his higher evolution.

140. What are they called ?

A. Gati Sampatti, Upadhi Sampatti, Kala
Sampatti and Payoga Sampatti.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 29

141. Q. Is that consistent or inconsistent with
common sense and the teachings of modern science ?

A. Perfectly consistent : there can be no
doubt of it.

142. Q. May all men become Buddhas ?

A. It is not in the nature of every man to
become a Buddha ; for a Buddha is developed only at
long intervals of time, and seemingly, when the state
of humanity absolutely requires such a teacher to
show it the forgotten Path to Nirvana. But every
being may equally reach Nirvana, by conquering
Ignorance and gaining Wisdom.

143. Q. Does Buddhism teach that man is reborn
only upon our earth 1

A. As a general rule that would be the
case, until he had evolved beyond its level ; but the
inhabited worlds are numberless. The world upon
which a person is to have his next birth, as well as
the nature of the rebirth itself, is decided by the
preponderance of the individual's merit or demerit.
In other words, it will be controlled by his attractions,
as science would describe it ; or by his Karma, as we,
Buddhists, would say.

144. Q. Are there worlds more perfectly developed,
and others less so than our Earth ?

A. Buddhism teaches that there are whole
Sakwalas, or systems of worlds, of various kinds, higher
and lower, and also that the inhabitants of each world
correspond in development with itself.

30 1HE BUDpHIST CATECHISM

145. Q. Has not the Buddha summed up his whole
doctrine in one gatha, or verse ?
A. Yes.

145. Q. Repeat it ?

A. Sabba papassa akaranam,
Kusalassa upasampada
Sachitta pariyodapanam —
Efam Buddhanusasanam.

" To cease from all evil actions,
To generate all that is good,
To cleanse one's mind :

This is the constant advice of the
Buddhas ".

147. Q. Have the first three of these lines any very
striking characteristics ?

A. Yes : the first line embodies the whole
spirit of the Vinaya Pitaka, the second that of the Sutta,
the third that of the Abhidhamma. They comprise only
eight Pali words, yet, as the dew-drop reflects the stars,
they sparkle with the spirit of all the Buddha Dharma.

148. Q. Do these precepts show that Buddhism is
an active or a passive religion ?

A. To " cease from sin " may be called
passive, but to " get virtue " and " to cleanse one's own
heart ", or mind, are altogether active qualities. Buddha
taught that we should not merely not be evil, but that
we should be positively good.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE

31

149. Q. Who or what are the "Three Guides"1
that a Buddhist is supposed to follow ?

A. They are disclosed in the formula called
the Tisarana : " I follow Buddha as my Guide : I
follow the Law as my Guide : I follow the Order as my
Guide ". These three are, in fact, the Buddha Dharma.

150. Q. What does he mean when repeating this
formula. ?

A. He means that he regards the Budolha as
his all-wise Teacher, Friend and Exemplar ; the law, or
Doctrine, ascontaining the essential and immutable
principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads

Saranam. Wijesinha Mudaliar writes me : " This word has been
hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered Refuge, by
European Pali scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali
scholars. Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies
the translation. Refuge, in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of
shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every
man working out his own emancipation. The root Sr in Samskrt
(sara in Pali) means to move, to go ; so that Saranam would denote
a moving, or he or that which goes before or with another— a Guide
or helper. I construe the passage thus : Gachchdmi, I go, Butfdham,
to Bu(J<Jha Saranam, as my Guide. The translation of the Tisamna
as the ** Three Refuges," has given rise to much misapprehension,
and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretent for taunting
Bu4<jlhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in non-entities and
believing in unrealities. The term refuge is more applicable to
Nirvana, of which Saranam is a synonym. The High Priest
Sumangala also calls my attention to tf*e fact that the Pali root Sara
has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys.
Buddham saranam gachchhdmi might thus be rendered "I go to
Bu4<jlha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my fears —
the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the
third by their various examples and precepts."

32 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

to the realisation of perfect peace of mind on earth ;
and the Order as the teachers and exemplars of that
excellent Law taught by Bu4dha.

151. Q. But are not some of the members of this
" Order " men intellectually and morally inferior ?

A. Yes ; but we are taught by the Buddha
that only those who diligently attend to the Precepts,
discipline their minds, and strive to attain or have
attained one of the eight stages of holiness and
perfection, constitute his "Order". It is expressly
stated that the Order referred to in the " Tisarana "
refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala "—the Noble
Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of
perfection. The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even
ordination, does not of itself make a man pure or wise
or entitle him to reverence.

152. Q. Then it is not such unworthy bhikkhus as
they, whom the true Buddhist would take as his guides ?

A. Certainly not.

153. Q. What are the five observances, or universal
precepts, called the Pancha Sila, which are imposed on
the laity in general ?

A. They are included in the following formula,
which Bu4dhists repeat publicly at the viharas (temples) :

I observe the precept to refrain from destroying the
life of beings.

I observe the precept to refrain from stealing.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 33

I observe the precept to abstain from unlawful
sexual intercourse.1

I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood.

I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicants.

154. Q. What strikes the intelligent person on
reading these Silas ?

A. That one who observes them strictly must
escape from every cause productive of human misery.
If we study history we shall find that it has all sprung
from one or another of these causes.

155. Q. In which Silas is the far-seeing wisdom of
the Buddha most plainly shown ?

A. In the first, third and fifth ; for the taking
of life, sensuality, and the use of intoxicants, cause at
least ninety-five per cent of the sufferings among men.

156. Q. What benefits does a man derive from the
observance of these Precepts ?

A. He is said to acquire more or less merit
according to the manner and time of observing the
precepts, and the number observed ; that is, if he
observes only one precept, violating the other four, he
acquires the merit of the observance of that precept
only ; and the longer he keeps that precept the greater

j This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only
profess to keep five precepts : a Bhflekhu must observe strict
celibacy. So, also, must the laity who binds himself to observe eight
o f the whole ten Precepts for specified periods ; during these periods
he must be celibate. The five Precepts were laid down by Buddha
for all people. Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and
eight Precepts may profitably be observed by all. It is the taking
of the " Three Refuges " that constitutes one a Buddhist.

34 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

will be the merit. He who keeps all the precepts
inviolate will cause himself to have a higher and happier
existence hereafter.

157. Q. What are the other observances which it is
considered meritorious for the laity as such to undertake
voluntarily to keep ?

A. The Atthanga Sila, or the Eightfold
Precept, which embraces the five above enumerated
(omitting the work " unlawful " in the third), with
three additional ; viz :

I observe the precept to abstain from eating at an
unseasonable time.

I observe the precept to abstain from dancing, singing,
music and unbecoming shows, and from the use of
garlands, scents, perfumes, cosmetics, ointments, and
ornaments.

I observe the precept to abstain from using high and
broad beds.

The seats and couches here referred to are those used
by the worldly-minded for the sake of pleasure and
sensual enjoyment. The celibate should avoid these.

158. Q. How would a Buddhist describe true merit ?
A. There is no great merit in any merely

outward act ; all depends upon the inward motive that
provokes the deed.

159. Q. Give an example ?

A. A rich man may expend lakhs of rupees
in building dagobas or viharas, in erecting statues of
Buddha, in festivals and processions, in feeding priests,
in giving alms to the poor, or in planting trees, digging

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 35

tanks, or constructing rest-houses by the roadside for
travellers, and yet have comparatively little merit if it
be done for display, or to hear himself praised by men,
or for any other selfish motives. But he who does the
least of these things with a kind motive, such as love
for his fellow-men, gains great merit. A good deed
done with a bad motive benefits others, but not the
doer. One who approves of a good deed when done
by another shares in the merit, if his sympathy is real,
not pretended. The same rule applies to evil deeds.

160. Q. But which is said to be the greatest of all
meritorious actions ?

A. The Dhammapada declares that the merit
of disseminating the Dharma, the Law of Righteousness,
is greater than that of any other good work.

161. Q. What books contain all the most excellent
wisdom of the Buddha's teachings ?

A. The three collections of books called
Tripitakas or " Three Baskets ".

162. Q. What are the names of the three Pitakas, or
groups of books ?

A. The The Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka
and the Abhidhamma Pitaka.

163. Q. What do they respectively contain ?

A. The first contains all that pertains to
morality and the rules of discipline for the government
of the Sangha , or Order ; the second contains
instructive discourses on ethics applicable to all ; the
third explains the psychological teachings of the Buddha
including the twenty-four transcendental laws explanatory
of the workings of Nature.

J» THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

164. Q. Do Buddhists believe these books to be
inspired, or revealed by a Divine Being ?

A. No ; but they revere them as containing
all the parts of that most Excellent Law, by the knowing
of which man may break through the trammels of
Samsara.

165. Q. In the whole text of the three Pitakas
how many words are there ?

A. Dr. Rhys-Davids estimates them at
1,752,800.

165. Q. When were the Pitakas first reduced to
writing ?

A. In 88-76 B.C., under the Sinh'.ilese King,
Wattagamini, or three hundred and thirty years after
the Parana virana of the Buddha.

167. Q. Have we reason to believe that all the
discourses of the Buddha are known to us ?

A. Probably not, and it would be strange if
they were. Within the forty-five years of his public
life he must have preached many hundreds of discourses.
Of these, in times of war and persecution, many must
have been lost, many scattered to distant countries, and
many mutilated, History says that enemies of the
Buddha Dhamma burnt piles of our bocks as high
as a coco-nut tree.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 37

168. Q. Do Buddhists consider the Buddha as one
who by his own virtue can save us from the consequence
of our individual sins ?

A. Not at all. Man must emancipate himself.
Until he does that he will continue being born over
and over and over again — the victim of ignorance,
the slave of unquenched passions.

169. Q. What, then, was the Buddha to us, and all
other beings ?

A. An all-seeing, all- wise Counsellor ; one
who discovered the safe path and pointed it out ; one
who showed the cause of, and the only cure for, human
surTereing. In pointing to the road, in showing us how
to escape dangers, he became our Guide. He is to
us like one leading blind man across a narrow bridge
over a swift and deep stream and so saving his life.

170. Q. If we were to try to represent the wh^le
spirit of the Budtfhtfs doctrine by one word, which word
should we choose ?

A. Justice.

171. Q. Why!

A. Because it teaches that every man gets,
under the operations of unerring KARMA, exactly that
reward or punishment which he has deserved, no more
and no less. No good deed or bad deed, however
trifling, and however secretly committed, escapes the
evenly-balanced scales of Karma.
5—

38 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

172. Q. What is Karma ? x

A. A causation operating on the moral, as
well as on the physical and other planes. Buddhists
say there is no miracle in human affairs : what a man
sows that he must and will reap.

173. Q. What other good words have been used to
express the essence of Buddhism ?

A. Self-culture and universal love.

174. Q. What doctrine ennobles Buddhism, and
gives it its exalted place among the world's religions ?

A. That of Mitta or Maitreya — compassionate
kindness. The importance of this doctrine is moreover
emphasised in the giving of the name " Maitri " (the
Compassionate One), to the coming Buddha.

175. Q. Were all these points of Doctrine that yoy
have explained meditated upon by the Buddha near the
Bo- tree ?

A. Yes, these and many more that may be
read in the Buddhist Scriptures. The entire system of
Buddhism came to his mind during the Great
Enlightenment.

175. How long did the Buddha remain near the
Bo tree ?

A. Forty-nine days.

1 Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions. The
law of Cause and Effect is called the Paticcia Samuppada Dhamma.
In the Anguttara Nikaya the Bucjhjlha teaches that my action is my
possession, my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb
which bears me, my action is my relative, my action is my refuge.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 39

177. Q. What do we call the first discourse preached
by the fiuddha — that which he addressed to his five former
companions ?

A. The Dhammacakka-ppavattana suit a — the
Sutra of the Definition of the Rules of Doctrine.1

178. Q. What subjects were treated by him in this
discourse ?

A. The "Four Noble Truths," and the
" Noble Eightfold Path ". He condemned the extreme
physical mortification of the ascetics, on the one hand,
and the enjoyment of sensual pleasures on the other ;
pointing out and recommending the Noble Eightfold
Path as the Middle Path.

179. Q. Did the Buddha hold with idol-worship ?

A. He did not ; he opposed it. The worship
of gods, demons, trees, etc., was condemned by the
Buddha. External worship is a fetter that one has to
break if he is to advance higher.

'After the appearance of the first edition, I received from one of
the ablest Pali scholars of Ceylon, the late L. Corneille Wijesinha
Esq., Mudaliar of Matale, what seems a better rendering of,
Dhammacakka-pparattana than the one previously given ; he makes
it "The Establishment of the Reign of Law". Professor Rhys-
Davids prefers, "The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness.
Mr. Wijesingha writes me : " You may use ' Kingdom of Right
eousness,' too, but it savours more of dogmatic theology than
philosophic ethics. Dhammacakkappavattama suttam is the
discourse entitled 'The Establishment of the Reign of Law'."
Having shown this to the High Priest, I am happy to be able
to say that he assents to Mr. Wijesingha's rendering.

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

180. Q. But do not Buddhists make revence before
the statue of the Buddha, his relics, and the monuments
enshrining him ?

A. Yes, but not with the sentiment of the
idolater.

181. Q. What is the difference ?

A. Our Pagan brother not only takes his
images as visible representations of his unseen God or
gods, but the refined idolater, in worshipping,
considers that the idol contains in its substance a
portion of the all-pervading divinity.

182. Q. What does the Buddhist think ?

A. The Buddhist reverences the Buddha's
statue and the other things you have mentioned, only
as mementoes of the greatest, wisest, most benevolent
and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa).
All races and people preserve, treasure up, and value
the relics and momentoes of men and women who have
been considered in any way great. The Buddha, to
us, seems more to be revered and beloved than any
one else, by every human being who knows sorrow.

183. Q. Has the Buddha himself given us some
thing definite upon this subject ?

A. Certainly. In the Mahd Pan-Nirvana
Sutta he says that emancipation is attainable only by
leading the Holy life, according to the Noble Eight
fold Path, not by eternal worship (dmisa puja), nor
by adoration of himself, or of another, or of any
image.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 41

184. Q. What was the Buddha's estimate of
ceremonialism ?

A. From the beginning, he condemned the
observance of ceremonies and other external practices,
which only tend to increase our spiritual blindness
and our clinging to mere lifeless forms.

185. Q. What as to controversies ?

A. In numerous discourses he denounced
this habit as most pernicious. He prescribed penances
for Bhikkhus who waste time and weaken their higher
intuitions in wrangling over theories and metaphysical
subtleties.

185. A. Are charms, incantations, the observance
of lucky hours and devil-dancing a part of Buddhism ?

A. They are positively repugnant to its
fundamental principles. They are the surviving relics
of fetishism and pantheism and other foreign
religions. In the Brahmajdla Sutta the Buddha has
categorically described these and other superstitions
as Pagan, mean and spurious.1

187. Q. What striking contrasts are there between
Buddhism and what may be properly called " religions " ?

A. Among others, these : It teaches the
highest goodness without a creating God ; a continuity
of line without adhering to the superstitious and selfish

1The mixing of these arts and practices with Buddhism is a sign
of deterioration. Their facts and phenomena are real and capable
of scientific explanation. They are embraced ir« the term " magic,"
but when resorted to, for selfish purposes, attract bad influences
about one, and impede spi ritual advancement . When employed for
harmless and beneficent purposes, such as healing the sick, saving
life, etc., the Buddha permitted their use.

42 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

doctrine of an eternal, metaphysical soul-substance
that goes out of the body ; a hapiness without an
objective heaven ; a method of salvation without a
vicarious Saviour ; redemtpion by oneself as the
Redeemer, and without rites, prayers, penances,
priest or intercessory saints ; and a summum bonum,
i.e., Nirvana, attainable in this life and in this world
by leading a pure, unselfish life of wisdom and of
compassion to all beings.

188. Q. Specify the two main divisions of
"meditation" i.e., of the process by which one
extinguishes passion and attains knowledge ?

A. Samatha and Vidarsana : (1) the attenu
ation of passion by leading the holy life and by
continued effort to subdue the senses ; (2) the attain
ment of supernormal wisdom by reflection : each of
which embraces twenty aspects, but I need not here
specify them.

189. Q. What are the four paths or stages of
advancement that one may attain to ?

A. (1) Sotdpatti — the beginning or entering
into which follows after one's clear perception of the
" Four Noble Truths " ; (2) Sakardagami—thQ path of
one who has so subjugated lust, hatred and delusion
that he need only return once to this world ; (3) Andgami
— the path of those who have so far conquered self
that they need not return to this world ; (4) Arhat —
the path of the holy and worthy Arhat, who is not
only free from the necessity of reincarnation, but has
capacitated himself to enjoy perfect wisdom, boundless
pity for the ignorant and suffering, and measureless
love for all beings.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 43

190. Q. Does popular Buddhism contain nothing
but what is true, and in accord with science ?

A. Like every other religion that has existed
many centuries, it certainly now contains untruth
mingled with truth ; even gold is found mixed with
dross. The poetical imagination, the zeal, or the lin
gering superstition of Buddhist devotees have, in var
ious ages, and in various lands, caused the noble prin
ciples of the Buddha's moral doctrines to be coupled
more or less with what might be removed to advantage.

191. Q. When such perversions are discovered,
what should be the true Buddhist's earnest desire ?

A. The true Buddhist should be ever ready
and anxious to see the false purged away from the
true, and to assist, if he can. Three great Councils
of the Sangha were held for the express purpose of
purging the body of Teachings from all corrupt inter
polations.

192. Q. When ?

A. The first, at Sattapanni cave, just after
the death of the Buddha ; the second at Valukarama,
in Vaisali ; the third at Asokarama Vihara, at Patali-
putra, 235 years after Buddha's decease.

193. Q. In what discourse does the Buddha himself
'warn us to expect this perversion of the true Doctrine ?

A. In the Sanyutta Nikdya.

194. Q. Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which
we are required to accept on faith ?

A. No: we are earnestly enjoined to accept
nothing whatever on faith ; whether it be written in
books, handed down from our ancestors, or taught by
the sages.

44 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

195. Q. Did he himself really teach that noble
rule ?

A. Yes. The Buddha has said that we must
not believe in a thing said merely because it is said ;
nor in traditions because they have been handed down
from antiquity ; nor rumours, as such ; nor writings by
sages, merely because sages wrote them ; nor fancies
that we may suspect to have been inspired in us by a
Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual inspiration) ; nor
from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption
we may have made ; nor because of what seems
analogical necessity ; nor on the mere authority of our
own teachers or masters.

196. Q. When, then, must we believe ?

A. We are to believe when the writing doctrine
or saying is corroborated by our own reason and
consciousness. " For this, " says he in concluding
" I taught you not to believe merely because you have
heard, but when you believed of your own consciousness,
then to act accordingly and abundantly." (See the
Kdlama Sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya, and the Mahd
Pari Nirvana Sutta.)

\ 97. Q. What does the Buddha call himself ?

A. He says that he and the other Buddhas are
only " preachers " of truth who point out the way : we
ourselves must make the effort.

198. Q. Where is this said ?

A. In the phammapada., Chapter xx.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 45

199. Q. Does Buddhism countenance hypocrisy ?
A. The Dhammapada says : "Like a beautiful

flower full of colour without scent the fine words of
him who does not act accordingly are fruitless."

200. Q. Does Buddhism teach us to return evil for
evil ?

A. In the Dhammapada the Buddha said :
"If a man foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him
the protection of my ungrudging love ; the more evil
comes from him, the more good shall go from me."
This is the path followed by the Arhat.1 To return evil
for evil is positively forbidden in Buddhism.

1 A Bu44hist ascetic who, by a prescribed course of practice, has
attained to a superior state of spiritual and intellectual develop
ment. Arhats may be divided into the two general groups of the
Samathayanika and Sukka Vipassaka. The former have destroyed
their passions, and fully developed their intellectual capacity or
mystical insight ; the latter have equally conquered passion, but not
acquired the superior mental powers. The former can work phe
nomena, the latter cannot. The Arhat of the former class, when
fully developed, is no longer a prey to the delusions of the senses,
nor the slave of passion or mortal frailty. He penetrates to the root
of whatsoever subject his mind is applied to without following the slow
processes of reasoning. His self-conquest is complete ; and in
place of the emotion and desire which vex and enthral the ordinary
man, he is lifted up into a condition which is best expressed in the
term " Nirvanic". There is in Ceylon a popular misconception
that the attainment of Arhatship is now impossible ; that the
Buddha had himself prophesied that the power would die out in
one millenium after his death. This rumour — and the similar one
that is everywhere heard in India, viz., that this being the dark cycle
of the Kali Yuga, the practice of Yoga Vidya, or sublime spiritual
science, is impossible — I ascribe to the ingenuity of those who
should be as pure and (to use a non-Butftfhistic but very convenient
term) psychically wise as were their predecessors, but are not, and

46 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

201. Q. Does it encourage cruelty ?

A. No, indeed. In the Five Precepts and in
many of his discourses, the Buddha teaches us to be
merciful to all beings, to try and make them happy, to
love them all, to abstain from taking life, or consenting
to it, or encouraging its being done.

202. Q. In which discourse is this stated ?

A. The jDhammika Sutta says : "Let him
(the householder) not destroy, or cause to be destroyed,
any life at all, or sanction the act of those who do so. Let
him refrain from even hurting any creature."1

203. Q. Does it approve of drunkenness ?

A. In his Dhammika Sutta we are warned
against drinking liquors, causing others to drink, or
sanctioning the acts of those who drink.i

204. Q. To what are we told that drunkeness leads ?

A. To demerit, crime, insanity, and ignorance
— which is the chief cause of rebirth.

who therefore seek an excuse ! The Buddha taught quite the
contrary idea. In the niga dikaya he said : "Hear, Subbhadra !
The world will never be without Arhats if the ascetics (Bhikkhus) in
my congregations well and truly keep my precepts" (Imeccha Sub-
haddabhikku samma vihareyyum asunno loko Arahantehiassa).

1 Kolb, in his History of Culture, says : "It is Bu&lhism we have
to thank for the sparing of prisoners of war, who heretofore had
been slain ; also for the discontinuance of the carrying away into
captivity of the inhabitants of conquered lands.

2 The fifth Sila has reference to the mere taking of intoxicants
and stupefying drugs, which leads ultimately to drunkenness.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTINE 47

205. Q. What does Buddhism teach about marriage ?

A. Absolute chastity being a condition of full
spiritual development, is most highly commended ; but
a marriage to one wife and fidelity to her is recognised
as a kind of chastity. Polygamy was censured by the
Buddha as involving ignorance and promoting lust.

206. Q.^ In what discourse ?

A. The Anguttara Nikdya, Chapter iv, 55.

207. Q. What does it teach as to the duty of parents
to children ?

A. They should restrain them from vice ;
train them in virtue ; have them taught arts and sciences ;
provide them with suitable wives and husbands, and
give them their inheritance.

208. Q. What is the duty of children ?

A. To support their parents when old or
needy ; perform family duties incumbent on them ; guard
their property ; make themselves worthy to be their
heirs, and when they are gone, honour their memory.

209. Q. What of pupils to the teacher ?

A. To show him respect ; minister to him ;
obey him ; supply his wants ; attend to his instruction.

210. Q. What of husband to wife ?

A. To cherish her ; treat her with respect and
kindness ; be faithful to her ; cause her to be honoured
by others ; provide her with suitable ornaments and
clothes.

48 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

211. Q. What of the wife to her husband ?

A. To show affection to him ; order her
household aright ; be hospitable to guests ; be chaste ;
be thrifty ; show skill and diligence in all things.

212. Q. Where are these precepts taught ?
A. In the Sigdlovdda Suit a.

213. Q. Do riches help a man to future happiness ?
A. The phammapada says : "One is the road

that leads to wealth, another the road that leads to
Nirvana."

214. Q. Does that mean that no rich man can attain
Nirvana ?

A. That depends on which he loves most. If
he uses his wealth for the benefit of mankind — for the
suffering, the oppressed, the ignorant — then his wealth
aids him to acquire merit.

215. Q. But if the contrary ?

A. But if he loves and greedily hoades money
for the sake of its possession, then it weakens his moral
sense, prompts him to crime, brings curses upon him in
this life, and their effects are felt in the next birth.

215. Q. What says the " Dhammapaga " about
ignorance ?

A. That it is a taint worse than all taints that
a man can put upon himself.

217. Q. What does it say about uncharitableness
towards others ?

A. That the fault of others is easily perceived
but that of oneself difficult to perceive ; a man winnows
his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he
hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the gambler.

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 49

218. Q. What advice does the Buddha give us as to
man's duty to the poor ?

A. He says that a man's net income should be
divided into four parts, of which one should be devoted
to philanthropic objects.

219. Q. What five occupations are said to be low and
base ?

A. Selling liquor, selling animals for slaughter,
selling poison, selling murderous weapons, and dealing
in slaves.

220. Q. Who are said to be incapable of progress in
spirituality ?

A. The killers of father, mother, and holy
Arhats; Bhikkhus who sow discord in the Sangha ;
those who attempt to injure the person of a Buddha ;
those who hold extremely nihilistic views as to the
future existence ; and those who are extremely sensual.

121. Q. Does Buddhism specify places or conditions
of torment into which a bad marts Karma draws him on
leaving this life ?

A. Yes. They are : Sanjiva ; Kalasutra ;

Sanghata ; Raurava ; Maha-Raurava Tapa ; Pratapa ;
Avichi.

222. Q. Js the torment eternal ?

A. Certainly not. Its duration depends on a
man's Karmc^.

223. Q. Does Buddhism declare that non-believers in
Buddha will of necessity be damned for their unbelief ?

A. No ; by good deeds they may enjoy a
limited term of happiness before being drawn into rebirth
by their unexhausted tanhd. To escape rebirth, one must
tread the Noble Eight-fold Path.

50 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

224. Q. What is the spiritual status of woman
among Buddhist ?

A. According to our religion they are on a
footing of perfect equality with men. " Woman," says
the Buddha, in the Chullavedalla Sutta, " may attain the
highest path of holiness that is open to man — Arhatship."

225. Q. What does a modern critic say about the
effect of Buddhism on woman ?

A. That " it has done more for the happiness
and enfranchisement of woman than any other creed "
(Sir Lepel Griffin).

226. Q. What did the Buddha teach about caste ?

A. That one does not become of any caste,
whether Pariah, the lowest, or Brahmana the highest, by
birth, but by deeds. " By deeds," said He, " one becomes
an outcast, by deeds one becomes a Brahmana " (See
Vasala Sutta).

227. Q. Tell me a story to illustrate this ?

A. Ananda, passing by a well, was thirsty and
asked Prakrtti, a girl of the Matanga, or Pariah, caste,
to give him water. She said she was of such low caste
that he would become contaminated by taking water
from her hand. But Ananda replied : " I ask not for
caste but for water " ; and the Matanga girl's heart was
glad and she gave him to drink. The Buddha blessed
her for it.

228. Q. What did the Buddha say in " Vasala Sutta "
about a man of the Pariah Sopdka caste ?

A. That by his merits he reached the highest
fame ; that many Khattiyas (Kshattriyas) and Brah-
manas went to serve him ; and that after death he was

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 51

born in the Brahma-world : while there are many
Brahmanas who for their evil deeds are born in hell.

229. Q. Does Buddhism teach the Immortality of
the soul ?

A. It considers " soul " to be a word used by
the ignorant to express a false idea. If everything is
subject to change, then man is included, and every
material part of him must change. That which is subject
to change is not permanent : so there can be no immortal
survival of a changeful thing.1

230. Q. What is so objectionable in this word
" soul " ?

A. The idea associated with it that man can
be an entity separated from all other entities, and from
the existence of the whole of the Universe. This idea
of separateness is unreasonable, not provable by logic,
nor supported by science.

231. Q. Then there is no separate "/", nor can we
say " my " this or that ?

A. Exactly so.

232. Q. If the idea of a separate human "soul" is
to be rejected, what is it in man which gives him the
impression of having a permanent personality ?

A. Tanha, or the unsatisfied desire for exist
ence. The being having done that for which he must
be rewarded or punished in future, and having Tanha,
will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma.

1 The "soul" here criticised is the equivalent of the Greek psyche.
The word "material" covers other states of matter than that of the
physical body.

52 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

233. Q. What is it that is born ?

A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or per
sonality1 caused by the last generative thought of the
dying person.

n reflection, I have substituted "personality" for "indi
viduality" as written in the first edition. The successive appearance
upon one or many earths, or "descents into generation", of the
tanhaically-coherent parts (Skhandhas) of a certain being are a
succession of personalities. In each birth the personality differs
from that of the previous, or next succeeding birth. Karma the
deus ex machina, masks (or shall we say reflects ?) itself, now in the
personality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on throughout the
string of births. But though personalities ever shift, the one line of
life along which they are strung like beads, runs unbroken, it is ever
that particular Urn, never any other. It is therefore individual — •
an individual vital undulation— which is careering through the
objective side of Nature, under the impulse of Karma and the
creative direction of Tanha and persists through many cyclic
changes. Professor Rhys-Davids calls that which p.;sses from per
sonality to personality along the individual chain, "character" or
"doing". Since "character" is not a mere metaphysical abstrac
tion, but the sum of one's mental qualities and moral propensities,
would it not help to dispel what Professor Rhys-Davids calls "the
desperate expedient of a mystery " (Buddhism, p. 101), if we
regarded the life-undulation as individuality and each of its series
of natal manifestations as a separate personality ? We must have
two words to distinguish between the concepts, and find now so
clear and expressive as the two I have chosen. The perfected
individual, Buo'dhistically speaking, is a Buddha, T should say ; for
a Bu<jl<lha is but the rare flower of humanity, without the least
supernatural admixture. And, as countless generations — "four
asankheyyas and a hundred thousand cycles" (Fausboll and Rhys-
David's Buddhist Birth Stories, No. 13)— are required to develop a
man into a Buddha, and the iron will to become one runs throughout
all the successive births, what shall we call that which thus wills and
perseveres ? Character, or individuality ? An individuality, but
partly manifested in any one birth, built up of fragments from all
the births.

The denial of "Soul" by Buddha (see Samyuffa Nikaya, the
Sutfa Pifaka) points to the prevalent delusive belief in an indepen
dent personality ; an entity, which after one birth would go to a

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 53

234. Q. How many Skandhas are there ?
A. Five .

235. Q. Name the five Skandhas ?

A. Rupa, Vedana, Sanna, Samkhdra, and
Vinnana.

236. Q. Briefly explain what they are ?

A. Rupa, material qualities ; Vedana, sensa
tion ; Sannd, abstract ideas ; Samkhara, tendencies of
mind ; Vinnana, mental powers, or consciousness. Of
these we are formed ; by them we are conscious of
existence ; and through them communicate with the
world about us.

fixed place or state where, as a perfect entity, it could eternally
enjoy or suffer. And what he shows is that the "I am I" conscious
ness, is as regards permanency, logically impossible, since its ele
mentary constituents constantly change and the "I" of one birth
differs from the "I" of every other births. But every thing that I
have found in Buddhism accords with the theory of a gradual
evolution of the perfected man — v/z., a Buddha — through number
less natal experiences. And in the consciousness of that individual
man— viz., a Buddha — through numberless natal experiences.
And in the consciousness of that individual who, at the end of a
given chain of births, attains Bu^dhahood, or who succeeds in
attaining the fourth stage of Dhyana, or mystic self-development,
in any of his births anterior to the final one, the scene of all these
serial births are perceptible. In the Jatakattthavannana — so well
translated by Professor Rhys-Davids — an expression continually
recurs which, I think, rather supports such an idea v/z. : "Then the
Blessed One made manifest an occurrence hidden by change of birth",
or "that which had been hidden by," etc. Early Buddhism then
clearly held to a permanency of records in the Akasha, and the
potential capacity of man to read the same when he has evolved to
the stage of true individual enliShtenment. At death, and
convulsions and trance, thejavana china is transferred to the object
last created by the desires. The will to live brings all thoughts
into objectivity.

54 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

237. Q. To what cause must we attribute the dif
ferences in the combination of the five Skhandhas which
make every individual differ from every other individual ?

A. To the ripened Karma of the individual in
his preceding births.

238. Q. What is the force, or energy that is at work
under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being ?

A. Tanha — the will to live 1.

239. . Upon what is the doctrine of rebirths
founded ?

A. Upon the perception that perfect justice,
equilibrium and adjustment are inherent in the universal
system of Nature. Buddhists do not believe that one
life — even though it were extended to one hundred or
five hundred years — is long enough for the reward or
punishment of a man's deeds. The great circle of re
births will be more or less quickly run through according
to the preponderating purity or impurity of the several
lives of the individual.

1 The student may profitably consult Schopenhauei in this
connection. Arthur Schopenhauer, a modern German philoso
pher of the most eminent ability, taught that "the Principle or
Radical, of Nature, and of all her objects, the human body included
is, intrinsically what we ourselves are the most conscious of in our
own body, viz., Will. Intellect is a secondary capacity of the
primary will, a function of the brain in which this will reflects itself

as Nature and object and body, as in a mirror Intellect is

secondary, but may lead, in saints, to a complete renunciation of
will, as far as it urges "life" and is then extinguished in Nirvana
(L. A. Sanders in The Theosophist for May 1882, p. 213).

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 55

240. Q. Is this new aggregation of Skandhas — this
new personality — the same being as that in the previous
birth, Tanhd shoes has brought it into existence ?

A. In one sense it is a new being ; in another
it is not. In Pali it is — "nacha so nacha annoT which
means not the same nor yet another. During this life
the Skhandhas are constantly changing ; and while the
man A. B., of forty, is identical, as regards personality,
with the youth A. B., of eighteen, yet, by the continual
waste and reparation of his body, and change of mind
and character, he is a different being. Nevertheless, the
man in his old age justly reaps the reward of suffering
consequent upon his thoughts and actions at every pre
vious stage of his life. So the new being of a rebirth
being the same individuality as before, but with a change,
form, or new aggregation of Skandhas, justly reaps the
consequences of his actions and thoughts in the previous
existence.

241. Q. But the aged man remembers the incidents
of his youth, despite his being physically and mentally
changed. Whyy then, is not the recollection of past lives
brought over by us from our last birth, into the present
birth ?

A. Because memory is included within the
Skandhas ; and the Skandhas having changed with the
new reincarnation, a new memory, the record of the
particular existence, develops. Yet the record or re
flection of all the past earth-lives must survive ; for
when Prince Siddhartha became Buddha, the full se
quence of his previous births was seen by him. If their

! Physiologically speaking, man's body is completely changed
every seven years.

56 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

several incidents had left no trace behind, this could not
have been so, as there would have been nothing for him
to see. And any one who attains to the fourth state of
Dhyana (psychical insight) can thus retrospectively trace
the line of his lives.

242. Q. What is the ultimate point towards which
tend all these series of changes inform ?

A. Nirvana.

243 . Q. Does Buddhism teach that we should do good
with the view of reaching Nirvana ?

A. No ; that would be as absolute selfishness
as though the reward hoped for had been money, a
throne, or any other sensual enjoyment. Nirvana
cannot be so reached, and the unwise speculator is fore
doomed to disappointment.

244. Q. Please make it a little clearer ?

A. Nirvana is the synonym of unselfishnes,
the entire surrender of selfhood to truth. The ignorant
man aspires to nirvanic happiness without the least idea
of its nature. Absence of selfishness is Nirvana. Doing
good with the view to getting results, or leading the holy
life with the objects of gaining heavenly happiness, is not
the Noble Life that the Buddha enjoined. Without hope
of reward the Noble life should be lived, and that is the
highest life. The nirvanic state can be attained while
one is living on this earth.

245. Q. Name the ten great obstacles to advance
ment, called Sanyojanas, the Fetters ?

A. Delusion of self (Sakkaya-ditthi) ; Doubt
(Vicikiccha) ; Dependence on superstitious rites (Silab-
bata-paramasa) ; Sensuality, bodily passions (Kama ;)

TI1E DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 57

Hatred, ill-feeling (Patighd) ; Love of life on earth (Ru-
pardga) ; Desire for life in a heaven (Aruparaga) ; Pride
(Mana) ; Self-righteousness (Uddhacca) ; Ignorance
(Avijja).

246. Q. To become an Arhaf, how many of these
fetters must be broken ?

A. All.

247. Q. What are the five Niwaranas or
hindrances ?

A. Greed, Malice, Sloth, Pride, and Doubt.

248. Q. Why do we see this minute division of
feelings, impulses, workings of the mind, obstacles and
aids to advancement so much used in the Buddha \s
teachings ? It is very confusing to a beginner.

A. It is to help us to obtain knowledge of
ourselves, by training our minds to think out every
subject in detail. By following out this system of
self-examination, we come finally to acquire knowledge
and see truth as it is. This is the course taken by every
wise teacher to help his pupil's mind to develop.

249. Q. How many of the Buddlufs disciples were
specially renowned for their superior qualities ?

A. There are eighty so distinguished. They
are called the Aslti Mafia Savakas.

250. Q. What did the Buddha's wisdom embrace ?

A. He knew the nature of the Knowable and
the Unknowable, the Possible and the Impossible, the
cause of Merit and Demerit ; he could read the
thoughts of all beings ; he knew the laws of Nature

58 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

the illusions of the senses and the means to suppress
desires ; he could distinguish the birth and rebirth of
individuals, and other things.

251. Q. What do we call the basic principle on which
the whole of the Buddha's teaching is constructed ?

A. It is called Paticca Samuppada.1

252. Q. Is it easily grasped ?

A. It is most difficult ; in fact, the full meaning
and extent of it is beyond the capacity of such as are
not perfectly developed.

253. Q. What said the great commentator Buddha
Gho§ha about it ?

A. That even he was as helpless in this vast
ocean of thought as one who is drifting on the ocean
of waters.

254. Q. Then why should the Buddha say, in the
Parinibbana Sutta, that he " has no such thing as the
closed first of a teacher, who keeps something back"
If his whole teaching was open to every one's comprehension
why should so great and learned a man as Buddha Ghosha
declare it so hard to understand ?

1 This fundamental or basic principle may be designated in Pail
Niddna — chain of causation or, literally, " Origination of dep Ca
dence." Twelve Nidanas are specified, viz., : Avijja— ignorance of
the truth of natural religion ; Samkhdra — causal action, karma ;
Vifmdna — consciousness of personality, the " I am I " ; Ndma riipa
— name and form : Salayatana — six senses ; Phassa— contact ;
Vedand — feeling ; Tanhd — desire for enjoyment ; Updddna —
clinging ; Bhava — individualising existence; Jati — birth, caste?
Jard, marana, sokhaparideva, dukka; domanassa, updydsa— decay,
death, grief, lamentation, despair. . .' .. ..

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE 59

A. The Buddha evidently meant that he
taught everything freely ; but equally certain is it that
the real basis of the Dharma can only be understood by
him who has perfected his powers of comprehension.
It is, therefore, incomprehensible to common, un
enlightened persons.

255. Q. How does the teaching of the Buddha
support this view ?

A. The Buddha looked into the heart of each
person, and preached to suit the individual temperament
and spiritual development of the hearer.

PART III
THE SANGHA

256. Q. How do Buddhist Bhikkhus differ from
the priests of other religious ?

A. In other religions the priests claim to be
intercessors between men and God, to help to obtain
pardon of sins ; the Buddhist Bhikkhus do not
acknowledge or expect anything from a divine power.

257. Q. But why then was it worth while to create
this Order, or Brotherhood, or Society, apart from the
whole body of the people, if they were not to do what
other religious orders do ?

A. The object in view was to cause the most
virtuous, intelligent, unselfish and spiritually-minded
persons to withdraw from the social surroundinge
where their sensual and other selfish desires wers
naturally strengthened, devote their lives to the
acquisition of the highest wisdom, and fit themselves to
teach and guide others out of the pleasant path leading
towards misery, into the harder path that leads to true
happiness and final liberation.

258. Q. Besides the Eight, what two additional
observances are obligatory upon the Bhikkhus ?

A. I observe the precept to abstain from
dancing, singing and unbecoming shows.

I observe the precept to abstain from receiving gold
or silver.

The whole Dasa, or Bhikkhu Sila or Ten Precepts, are
binding on all Bhikkhus and Samaneras, or novices,
but optional with lay devotees.

THE SANGHA 61

The Atthanga Sila are for those who aspire to higher
stages beyond the heavenly regions,1 aspirants after
Nirvana.

259. Q. Are there separate Rules and Precepts for
the guidance and discipline of the Order ?

A. Yes : there are 250, but all come under
the following four heads :

Principal Disciplinary Rules (Patimokkha Samvara
Slid).

Observances for the repression of the senses (Indriya
Samvara Silo).

Regulations for justly procuring and using food, diet,
robes, etc., (Paccaya Sannissita Slid).

Directions for leading an unblemished life (Ajivapari
Suddha Slid).

260. Q. Enumerate some crimes and offences that
Bhikkhus are particularly prohibited from committing ?

A. Real Bhikkhus abstain from :

Destroying the life of beings ;
Stealing ;

False exhibition of " occult " powers to deceive
anybody ;

Sexual intercourse ;
Falsehood ;

The Upasaka and Upasika observes these on the Buddhist
Uposatha (Sabbath) days (in Skr. Upavasa). They are the 8th,
14th and 15th days of each half lunar month.

62 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

The use of intoxicating liquors, and eating at
unseasonable times ;

Dancing, singing, and unbecoming shows ;
Using garlands, scents, perfumes, etc. ;

Using high and broad beds, couches or seats ;
receiving presents of gold, silver, raw grain and meat,
women, and maidens, slaves, cattle, elephants, etc. ;

Defaming ;

Using harsh and reproachful language ;

Idle talk ;

Reading and hearing fabulous stories and tales ;

Carrying messages to and from laymen ;

Buying and selling ;

Cheating, bribing, deception, and fraud ;

Imprisoning, plundering, and threatening others ;

The practice of certain specified magical arts and
sciences, such as fortune-telling, astrological predictions,
palmistry, and other sciences, that go under the name
of magic. Any of these would retard the progress of
one who aimed at the attainment of Nirvana.

261. Q. What are the duties ofBhikkus to the laity ?

A. Generally, to set them an example of the
highest morality ; to teach ind instruct them ; to
preach and expound the Law ; to recite the Paritta
(comforting texts) to the sick, and publicly in times
of public calamity, when requested to do so ; and
unceasingly to exhort the people to virtuous actions.
They should dissuade them from vice ; be compassion-
.ate and tender-hearted, and seek to promote the
welfare of all beings,- - - - --

THE SANGHA 63

262. Q. What are the rules for admission into the
Order!

A. The candidate is not often taken before
his tenth year ; he must have the consent of his parents ;
be free from leprosy, boils, consumption and fits ; be
a free man ; have no debts ; and must not be a criminal
or deformed or in the royal service.

263. Q. As a novice what is he called ?
A. Samanera, a pupil.1

264. Q. At what age can a Samanera be ordained
as Sramana — monk ?

A. Not before his twentieth year.

265. Q. When ready for ordination what happens ?

A. At a meeting of Bhikkhus he is presented
by a Bhikkhu as his proposer, who reports that he is
qualified, and the candidate says : " I ask the Sangha,
Reverend Sirs, for the Upasampada (ordination)
ceremony, etc."

His introducer then recommends that he be admitted.
He is then accepted.

266. Q. What then ?

A. He puts on the robes and repeats the Three
Refuges (Tisarana) and Ten Precepts (Dasa Sila).

267. Q. What are the two essentials to be observed ?

A. Poverty and Chastity. A Bhikkhu before
ordination must possess eight things, v/z., his robes, a

1 The relationship his to Guru, or teacher, is almost like that of
godson to godfather among Christians, only more .roal, for the
teacher becomes father, mother, family and air to him.

64 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

girdle for his loins, a begging-bowl, water-strainer,
razor, needle, fan, sandals. Within limitations strictly
specified in the Vindya, he may hold certain other
properties.

268. Q. What about the public confession of faults ?

A. Once every fortnight, a Patimokka (Dis-
burdenment) ceremony is performed, when every
Bhikkhu confesses to the assembly such faults as he has
committed and takes such penances as may be prescribed.

269. Q. What daily routine must he follow ?

A. He rises before daylight, washes, sweeps
the vihara, sweeps around the Bo-tree that grows near
every vihara, brings the drinking-water for the day
and filters it ; retires for meditation, offers flowers
before the dagoba, or relic-mound, or before the Bo-tree ;
then takes his begging-bowl and goes from house to
house collecting food — which he must not ask for, but
receive in his bowl as given voluntarily by the
householders. He returns, bathes his feet and eats,
after which he resumes meditation.

270. Q. Must we believe that there is no merit in
the offering of flowers (malapiija) as an act of worship ?

A. That act itself is without merit as a mere
formality ; but if one offers a flower as the sweetest,
purest expression of heartfelt reverence for a holy being
then, indeed, is the offering an act of ennobling worship .

271. Q. What next does the Bhikkhu do ?

A. He pursues his studies. At sunset he
r+gain sweeps the sacred places, lights a lamp, listens to
the instructions of his superior, and confesses to him
any fault he may have committed.

THE SANGHA 65

272. Q. Upon what are his four earnest meditations
(Sati-patthana) made ?

A. 1. On the body, Kayanapassana.

2. On the feeling, Vedananupassdna.

3 . On the mind , Chittdnupassand .

4. On the doctrine, Dhammanupassand

273. Q. What is the aim of the four Great Efforts
(Sammappadhdna) ?

A. To suppress one's animal desires and
grow in goodness.

272. Q. For the perception by the Bhikkhu of the
highest truth, is reason said to be the best, or intuition ?

A. Intuition — a mental state in which any
desired truth is inst antaneously grasped.

275. Q. And when can that development be reached ?

A. When one, by the practice ofJtlcina, comes
to its fouth stage of unfolding.

275. Q. Are we to believe that in the final stage of
Jncina, and in the condition called Samddhi, the mind
is a blank and thought is arrested ?

A. Quite the CDiiirary. It is then that one's
consciousness is most intensely active, and one's power,
to gain knowledge correspondingly vast.

277. Q. Try to give me a simile ?

A. In the ordinary waking state one's view
of knowledge is as limited as the sight of a man who
walks on a road between high hills ; in the higher con
sciousness ofJndna and Sanuldhi it is like the sight of the
eagle poised in the upper sky and overlooking a
whole country.

66 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

278. Q. What do our books say about the Buddha's
use of this faculty ?

A. They tell us that it was his custom, every
morning, to glance over the world and, by his divine
(clairvoyant)sight, see where there were persons ready
to rteceive the truth. He would then contrive, if possible,
that it should reach them. When persons visited him he
would look into their minds, read their secret motives,
and then preach to them according to their needs.

PART IV
THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM

279. Q. As regards the number of its followers, how
does Buddhism at this date compare with the other chief
religions ?

A. The followers of the Buddha Dharma
outnumber those of every other religion.

280. Q. What is the estimated number ?

A. About five hundred millions (5,000 lakhs
or 500 crores) : this is five-thirteenths, or not quite half,
of the estimated population of the globe.

281. Q. Have many great battles been fought and
many countries conquered ; has much human blood been
split to spread the Buddha pharma ?

A. History does not record one of those
cruelties and crimes as having been committeed to
propagate our religion. So far as we know, it has not
caused the spilling of a drop of blood. (See foot-note
ante — Professor Kolb's testimony.)

282. Q. What, them, is the secret of its wonderful
spread ?

A. It can be nothing else than its intrinsic
excellence : its self-evident basis of truth, its sublime
moral teaching, and its sufHdiency for all human needs.

283. Q. How has it been propagated ?

A. The Buddha, during the forty-five years of
his life as a Teacher, travelled widely in India and preach
the Dharma. He sent his wisest and best disciples to
do the same throughout India.

68 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

284. Q. When did He send for his pioneer mission
aries ?

A. On the full-moon day of the month Wap
(October).

285. Q. What did he tell them ?

A. He called them together and said : "Go
forth, Bhikkhus, go and preach the law to the world.

Work for the good of others as well as for your own

Bear ye the glad tidings to every man. Let no two of
you take the same way."

286. Q. How long before the Christian era did this
happen ?

A. About six centuries.

287. Q. What help did Kings give ?

A. Besides the lov/er classes, great Kings,
Rajas and Maharajas were converted and gave their
influence to spread the religion.

288. Q. What about pilgrims ?

A. Learned pilgrims came in different centuries
to India and carried back with them books and teachings
to their native lands. SD, gradually, whole nations
forsook their own faiths and became Buddhists.

289. Q. To whom, more than to any other person,
is the world indebted for the permanent establishment
of Buddha's religion ?

A. To the Emperor Ashoka, surnamed the
Great, sometimes Piyadasi, sometimes Dharniashoka.
He was the son of Bindusara, King of Magadha, and
grandson of Chan^ragupta, who drove the Greeks
out of India.

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 69

290. Q. When did he reign ?

A. In the third century B.C., about two
centuries after the Buddha's time. Historians disagree
as to his exact date, but not very greatly.

291. Q. What made him great ?

A. He was the most powerful monarch in
Indian history, as warrior and as statesman ; but his
noblest characteristics were his love of truth and justice,
tolerance of religious differences, equity of government,
kindness to the sick, to the poor, and to animals.
His name is revered from Siberia to Ceylon.

292. Q. Was he bom a Buddhist ?

A. No, he was converted in the tenth year
after his anointment as King, by Nigrodha Samanera,
an Arhat.

293. Q. What did he do for Buddhism ?

A. He drove out bad Bhikkus, encouraged
good ones, built monasteries and dagobas everywhere,
established gardens, opened hospitals for men and
animals, convened a council at Patna to revise and
re-establish the Dharma, promoted female religious
education, and sent embassies to five Greek kings,
his allies, and to all the sovereigns of India, to preach the
doctrines of the Buddha. It was he who built the
monuments at Kapilavastu, Buddha Gaya, Isipatana
and Kusinara, our four chief places of pilgrimage,
besides thousands more.

294. Q. What absolute proofs exist as to his noble
character ?

A. Within recent years there have been
discovered, in all parts of India, fourteen Edicts of

70 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

his, inscribed on living rocks, and eight on pillars
erected by his orders. They fully prove him to have
been one of the wisest and most high-minded sovereigns
who ever lived.

295. Q. What character do these inscriptions give
to Buddhism ?

A. They show it to be a religion of noble
tolerence, of universal brotherhood, of righteousness
and justice. It has no taint of selfishness, sectarianism
or intolerence. They have done more than anything
else to win for it the respect in which it is now held by
the great pandits of western countries.

296. Q. What most precious gift did pharmdshoka
make to Buddhism ?

A. He gave his beloved son, Mahinda, and
daughter, Sanghamitta, to the Order, and sent them to
Ceylon to introduce the religion.

297. Q. Is this fact recorded in the history of Ceylon ?
A. Yes, it is all recorded in the Mahavansa,

by the keepers of the royal records, who were then
living and saw the missionaries.

298. Q. Is there some proof of Sanghamitfd 's
mission still visible ?

A. Yes ; she brought with her to Ceylon a
branch of the very Bodhi under which the Buddha, sat
vqhen he became Enlightened, and it is still growing.

299. Q. Where ?

A. At Anuradhapura. The history of it
has been officially preserved to the present time.
Planted in 306 B.C., it is the oldest historical tree in
the world

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 7!

300. Q. Who was the reigning sovereign at that
time ?

A. Devanampiyatissa. His consort, Queen
Anula, had invited Sanghamitta to come and establish
the Bhikkhuni branch of the Order.

301. Q. Who came with Sanghamitta ?

A. Many other Bhikkunis. She, in due time,
admitted the Queen and many of her ladies, together
with five hundred virgins, into the Order.

302. Q. Can we trace the effects of the foreign
work of the Emperor Ashoktfs missionaries ?

A. His son and daughter introduced Buddhism
into Ceylon : his monks gave it to the whole of
Northern India, to fourteen Indian nations outside its
boundaries, and to five Greek kings, his allies, with
whom he made treaties to admit his religious preachers

303. Q. Can you name them ?

A. ANTIOCHUS of Syria, PTOLEMY of Egypt,
ANTIGONUS OF Macedon, MERGAS of Cyrene, and
ALEXANDER of Epidos.

304. Q. Where do we learn this ?

A. From the Edicts themselves of Ashoka
the Great, inscribed by him on rocks and stone pillars,
which are still standing and can be seen by everybody
who chooses to visit the places.

305. Q. Through what western religious brother
hoods did the Buddha f>harma mingle itself with western
thought ?

A. Through the sects of the Therapeuts of
Egypt and the Essenes of Palestine.

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

306. Q. When were Buddhist books first introduced
into China ?

A. As early as the second or third century
B.C. Five of Dharmashoka's monks are said — in the
Samanta Pasadika and the Sarattha plpanl — Two Pali
books — to have been sent to the five divisions of China.

307. Q. Whence and when did it reach Korea ?
A. From China, in the year A.D. 372.

308. Q. Whence and when did it reach Japan ?
A. From Korea, in A.D. 552.

309. Q. Whence and when did it reach Cochin, China
Formosa, Java, Mongolia, York and, Balk, Bokhara,
Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries ?

A. Apparently in the fourth and fifth centuries
A.D.

310. Q. From Ceylon, whither and when did it

spread ?

A. To Burma, in A.D. 450, and thence gra
dually into Arakan, Kamboja and Pegu. In the
seventh century (A.D. 638) it spread to Siam, where it is
now, as it has been always since then, the State religion.

311. Q. From Kashmir, where else did it spread

besides to China ?

A. To Nepal and Tibet.

312. Q. Why is it that Buddhism, which was once the
prevailing religion throughout India, now almost extinct
Jhere ?

A. Buddhism was at first pure and noble, the
very teaching of the Tathagata ; its Sangha were virtuous

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 73

and observed the Precepts ; it won all hearts and spread
joy through many nations, as the morning light sends life
through the flowers. But after some centuries, bad
Bhikkhus got ordination (Upasampada) the Sangha be
came rich, lazy, and sensual the, Dharma was corrupted,
and the Indian nation abandoned it.

313. Q. Did anything happen about the ninth or
tenth century A.D. to hasten its downfall ?

A. Yes.

314. Q. Anything besides the decay of spirituality
the corruption of the Sangha, and the reaction of the
populace from a higher ideal of man to unintelligent
idolatry ?

A. Yes. It is said that the Mussalmans in
vaded, overran and conquered large areas of India ;
everywhere doing their utmost to stamp out our religion.

315. Q. What cruel acts are they charged with
doing ?

A. They burnt, pulled down or otherwise
destroyed our viharas, slaughtered our Bhikkhus, and
consumed with fire our religious books.

316. Q. Was our literature completely destroyed in
India ?

A. No. Many Bhikkhus fled across the
borders into Tibet and other safe places of refuge,
carrying their books with them.

317. Q. Have any traces of these books been
recently discovered ?

A. Yes. Rai Bha/iur Sara I Chandra Das,
C.I.E., a noted Bengali pandit, saw hundreds of them in

8 —

74 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

the vihara libraries of Tibet, brought copies of some of
the most important back with him, and is now em
ployed by the Government of India in editing and
publishing them.

318. Q. In which country have we reason to believe
the sacred books of primitive Buddhism have been best
preserved and least corrupted ?

A Ceylon. The Encyclopaedia Britannaica
says that in this island Buddhism has, for specified
reasons, " retained almost its pristine purity to modern
times."

319. Q. Has any revision of the text of the Pitakas
been made in modern times ?

A. Yes. A careful revision of the Vinaya
Pitaka was made in Ceylon in the year A.D. 1875, by a
convention of the most learned Bhikkhus, under the
presidency of H. Sumangala, Pradhana Sthavira.

320. Q. Has there been any friendly intercourse in
the interest of Buddhism between the peoples of the
Southern and those of the Northern Buddhist countries ?

A. In the year A.D. 1891, a successful attempt
was made to get the Pradhana Nayakas of the two great
divisions to agree to accept fourteen propositions as
embodying fundamental Buddhistic beliefs recognised
and taught by both divisions. These propositions,
drafted by Colonel Olcott, were carefully translated into
Burmese, Sinhalese and Japanese, discussed one by one,
unanimously adopted and signed by the chief monks, and
published in January 1892.

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 75

321. Q. With what good result ?

A. As the result of the good understanding
now existing, a number of Japanese bhikkhus and
samaneras have been sent to Ceylon and India to study
Pali and Samskrt.

322. Q. Are there signs that the Buddha Dharma is
growing in favour in non-Buddhistic countries ?1

A. There are. Translations of our more
valuable books are appearing, many articles in reviews,
magazines and newspapers are being published, and
excellent original treatises by distinguished writers are
coming from the press. Moreover, Buddhist and non-
Buddhist lecturers are publicly discoursing on Buddhism
to large audiences in western countries. The Shin Shu
sect of Japanese Buddhist have actually opened missions
at Honolulu, San Francisco, Sacramento and other
American places.

323. Q. What two leading ideas of ours are chiefly
taking hold upon the western mind ?

A. Those of Karma and Reincarnation. The
rapidity of their acceptance is very surprising.

324. Q. What is believed to be the explanation of
this ?

A. Their appeals to the natural instinct of
justice, and their evident reasonableness.

l/ See Appendix.

PART V
BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE

325. Q. Has Buddhism any right to be considered
a scientific religion, or may it be classified its a " reveal
ed " one ?

A. Most emphatically it is not a revealed
religion. The Buddha did not so preach, nor is to be so
understood. On the contrary, he gave it out as the
statement of eternal truths, which his predecessors
had taught like himself.

326. Q. Repeat again the name of the sutta, in
which the Buddha tells us not to believe in an alleged
revelation without testing it by one's reason and
experience ?

A. The Kalama Sutta, of the Angutthara
Nikaya.

327. Q. Do Buddhists accept the theory that
everything has been formed out of nothing by a Creator ?

A. The Buddha taught that two things are
causeless, viz., Akasha, and Nirvana. Everything has
come out of Akasha, in obedience to a law of motion
inherent in it, and, after a certain existence, passes
away. Nothing ever came out of nothing. We do
not believe in miracles ; hence we deny creation, and
cannot conceive of a creation of something out of
nothing. Nothing organic is eternal. Everything is
in a state of constant flux, and undergoing change and
reformation, keeping up the continuity according to the
law of evolution.

BUDDHISM AiND SCIENCE 77

328. Q. Is Buddhism opposed to education, and
to the study of science ?

A. Quite the contrary : in the Sigdlowada
Sutta in a discourse preached by the Buddha, He
specified as one of the duties of a teacher that he should
give his pupils " instruction in science and lore ".
The Buddha's higher teachings are for the enlightened,
the wise, and the thoughtful.

329. Q. Can you show any further endorsement
of Buddhism by science ?

A. The Buddha's doctrine teaches that
there were many progenitors of the human race ; also
there there is a principle of differentiation among men ;
certain individuals have a greater capacity for the
rapid attainment of Wisdom and arrival at Nirvana
than others.

330. Q. Any other ?

A. Buddhism supports the teaching of the
indestructibility of force.

331. Q. Should Buddhism be called a chart of
science or a code of morals ?

A. Properly speaking, a pure moral philo
sophy, a system of ethics and transcendental meta
physics. It is so eminently practical that the Buddha
kept silent when Malunkya asked about the origin of
thing .

332. Q. Why did he do that ?

A. Because he thought that our chief aim
should be to see things as they exist around us and try
to make them better, not to waste time in intellectual
speculations.

78 THE BUpDfflST CATECHISM

333. Q. What do Buddhists say is the reason for the
occasional birth of very good and wise children of bad
parents, and that of very bad ones of good parents ?

A. It is because of the respective Karmas of
children and parents ; each may have deserved that such
unusual relationships should be formed in the present
birth.

334. Q. Is anything said about the body of the
Buddha giving out a bright light ?

A. Yes, there was a divine radiance sent forth
from within by the power of his holiness.

335. Q. What is it called in Pall ?

A. Buddharansi, the Buddha rays

336. Q. How many colours could be seen in it ?
A. Six, linked in pairs.

337. Q. Their names ?

A. Nila, Pita, Lohita, Avadata, Mangestd,
Prabhasvra.

338. Q. Did other persons emit such shining light ?

A. Yes, all Arhats did and, in fact, the light
shines stronger and brighter in proportion to the
spiritual development of the person.

339. Q. Where do we see these colours represented ?

A. In all viharas where there are painted
images of the Buddha. They are also seen in the stripes
of the Buddhist Flag, first made in Ceylon but now
widely adopted throughout Buddhist countries.

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 79

340. Q. In which discourse does the Buddha himself
speak of this shining about him ?

A. In the Mahd-Prainibbana Sutto, Atlanta his
favourite disciple, noticing the great splendour which
came from his Master's body, the Buddha said that on
two occasions this extraordinary shining occurs, (a) just
after a Jathagata gains the supreme insight, and (b) on
the night when he passes finally away.

341. Q. Where do we read of this great brightness
being emitted from the body of another Buddha ?

A. In the story of SumeJha and Dipankara
Buddha, found in the Nidanakatha of the Jaiaka book,
or story of the reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Sid-
dhflrtha Gautama.

342. Q. How is it described ?

A. As a halo of a fathom's depth.

343. What do the Hindus call it ?

A. Tejas, its extended radiance they call
Prakasha.

344. Q. What do Europeans call it now ?
A. The human aura.

345. Q. What great scientist has proved the existence
of this aura by carefully conducted experiments ?

A. The Baron Von Reichenbach. His ex
periments are fully described in his Researches, pub
lished in 1844-5. Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, has, quite
recently, photographed this light.

346. Q. Is this bright aura a miracle or a natural
phenomenon ?

A. Natural. It has been proved that not only
all human beings but animals, trees, plants and even
stones have it.

80 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

347. Q. What peculiarity has it in the case of a
Buddha or an Arahat ?

A. It is immensely brighter and more extended
than in cases of other beings and objects. It is the evi
dence of their superior developments in the power of
Iddhi. The light has been seen coming from dagabos in
Ceylon where relics of the Buddha are said to be
enshrined.

348. Q. Do people of other religions besides
Buddhism and Hinduism also believe in this light ?

A. Yes, in all pictures of Christian artists this
light is represented as shining about the bodies of their
holy personages. The same belief is found to have
existed in other religions.

349. Q. What historical incident supports the modern
theory of hypnotic suggestion ?

A. That of Chullapanthaka, as told in the Pali
Commentary on the Dhammapada, etc.

350. Q. Give me the facts.

A. He was a bhikkhu who became an Arhat.
On that very day the Budcjha sent a messenger to call
him. When the man reach the Vihara, he saw three
hundred bhikkhus in one group, each exactly like the
others in every respect. On his asking which was
Chullapanthaka, every one of the three hundred figures
replied : "I am Chullapanthaka."

351. Q. What did the messenger do*

A. In his confusion he returned and reported
to the Buddha.

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 81

352. Q. What did the Buddha then tell him ?

A. To return to the vihara and, if the same
thing happened, to catch by the arm the first figure who
said he was Chullapanthaka and lead him to him. The
Buddha knew that the new Arhat would make this
display of his acquired power to impress illusionary
pictures of himself upon the messenger.

353. Q. What is this power of illusion called in Pali ?
A. Manomaya IddhL

354. Q. Were the illusionary copies of the Arahafs
person material ? Were they composed of substance and
could they have been full and handled by the messenger ?

A. No ; they were pictures impressed by his
thought and trained will-power upon the messenger's
mind.

355. Q. To what would you compare them ?

A. To a man's reflection in a mirror being
exactly like him yet without solidity.

356. Q. To make such an illusion on the messen
ger's mind, what was necessary ?

A. That Chullapanthaka should clearly
conceive in his own mind his exact appearance, and
then impress that, with as many duplicates or repeti
tions as he chose, upon the sensitive brain of the
messenger.

357. Q. What is this process now called ?
A. Hypnotic Suggestion.

358. Q. Could any third party have also seen these
illusionary figures ?

A. That would depend on the will of the
Arhat or hypnotiser.

359. Q. Wfiat do you mean ?

A. Supposing that fifty or five hundred per
sons were there, instead of one, the Arhat could will
9-

82 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

that the illusion should be seen by all alike ; or, if he
chose, he could will that the mesenger should be the-
only one to see them.

360. Q. Is this branch of science well known in
our day ?

A. Very well known ; it is familiar to all
students of mesmerism and hypnotism.

361. Q. In what does our modern scientific belief
support the theory of Karma, as taught in Buddhism ?

A. Modern scientists teach that every
generation of men is heir to the cosequences of the
virtues and the vices of the preceding generation,
not in the mass, as such, but in every individual case.
Every one of us, according to Buddhism, gets a birth
which represents the causes generated by him in an
antecedent birth. This is the idea of Karma.

362. Q. What says the Vasettha Sutta about the
causation in Nature ?

A. It says : " The world exists by cause ;
all things exist by cause ; all beings are bound by cause.'

363. Q. Does Buddhism teach the unchangeable ss
of the visible universe ; our earth, the sun, the moon,
the stars, the mineral, vegetable, animal and human
kingdoms ?

A. No. It teaches that all are constantly
changing, and all must disappear in course of time.

364. Q. Never to reappear ?

A. Not so : the principle of evolution, guided
by Karma, individual and collective, will evolve another

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 83

universe with its contents, as our universe was evolved
out of the Akflsha.

365. Q. Does Buddhism admit that man has in
his nature any latent powers for the production of
phenomena commonly called " miracles "?

A. Yes ; but they are natural, not super
natural. They may be developed by a certain system
which laid down in our sacred books, Visuddhi Marga
for instant.

366. Q. What is this branch of slcence called7.

A. The Pali name is Iddhi-vidhanana.

367. Q. How many kinds are there ?

A. Two : Sahfra, i.e., one in which the
phenomena-working power may be temporarily obtained
by ascetic practices and also by resort to drugs, the
recitation of mantras (charms), or other extraneous aids ;
and Sasaniks, that in which the power in question is
acquired by interior self-development, and covers all
and more than the phenomena o* Laukika Iddhi.

368. Q. What class of men enjoy these powers ?

A. They gradually develop in one which
pursues a certain course of ascetic practice called Dhyana.

369. Q. Can this Iddhi power he lost I1

A. The Bahira can be lost, but the Sasanika
never, when once acquired. Lokottara knowledge once

1Sumangala Sthavira explains to me that those transcendent
powers are permanently possessed only by one who has subdued all
the passions (Klesci), in other words, an Arhaf. The powers may
be developed by a bad man and used for doing evil things, but
their activity is but brief, the revellious passions age in dc rr.h: at the
sorcerer, and he becomes at last their victim.

84 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

obtained is never lost, and it is by this knowledge only
that the absolute condition of Nirvana is known by the
Arhat. And this knowledge can bs got by following
the noble life of the Eightfold Path.

370. Q. Had Buddha the Lokottara Iddhl ?
A. Yes, in perfection.

371 . Q. And his disciples also had it ?

A. Yes, some but not all equally ; the capacity
for acquiring these occult powers varies with the
individual.

372. Q. Give examples ?

A. Of all the disciples of the Buddha,
Mogallana was possessed of the most extraordinary
powers for making phenomena, while Ananda could
develop none during the twenty-five years in which he
was the personal and intimate disciple of the Buddha
himself. Later he did, as the Buddha had foretold he
would .

373. Q. Does a man acquire these powers suddenly
or gradually ?

A. Normally, they gradually develop them
selves as the disciple progressively gains control over
his lower nature in a series of births.1

374. Q. Does Buddhism pretend that the miracle of
rasing those who are dead is possible ?

A. No. The Buddha teaches the contrary, in
that beautiful story of Kisa Gotami and the mustard-

1 When the powers suddenly show themselves, the inference is
that the individual had developed himself in the next anterior birth.
We do not believe in eccentric breaks in natural law.

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 85

seed. But when a person only seems to be dead but is
not actually so, resuscitation is possible.

375. Q. Give me an idea of these successive stages of
the Lokottara development in Iddhl ?

A. There are six degrees attainable by Arhats ;
what is higher than them is to be reached only by a
Buddha.

376. Q. Describe the six stages or degreses ?

A. We may divide them into two groups of,
three each. The first to include (1) Progressive
retrospection, viz., a gradually acquired power to look
backward in time towards the origin of things ; (2)
Progressive foresight, or power of prophecy ; (3) Gradual
extinction of desires and attachments to material things.

377. Q. What would the second group include ?

A. The same faculties, but inimitably
developed. Thus, the full Arhat possesses perfect
retrospection, perfect foresight, and has absolutely
extinguished the last trace of desireand selfish attractions.

378. Q. What the four means for obtaining Id^hi ?

A. The will its exertion, mental development,
and discrimination between right and wrong.

379. Q. Our Scriptures relate hundreds of instances
of phenomena produced by Arhats : what did you say was
the name of this faculty or power •?-

A. /(/(//;/ vi<jha. One possessing this can, by

manipulating the forces of Nature, produce any

wonderful phenomenon, i.e.r make any scientific
experiment he chooses.

86 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

380. Q. Did the Buddha encourage displays of
phenomena ?

A. No ; he expressly discouraged them as
tending to create confusion in the minds of those who
were not acquainted with the principles involved. They
also tempt their possessors to show them merely to
gratify idle curiosity and their own vanity. Moreover,
similar phenomena can be shown by magicians and
sorcerers learned in the Lauklka, or the baser form o
Id$hi science. All false pretensions to supernatural
attainment by monks are among the unpardonable sins
(Tevijja Sufta).

381. Q. You spoke of a6' deva " having appeared to
the Prince Siddhartha under a variety of forms ; what
do Buddhists believe respecting races of elemental invisible
beings having relations with mankind ?

A. They believe that there are such beings
who inhabit worlds or spheres of their own. The
Buddhist doctrine is that, by interior self-development
and conquest over his baser mature, the Arhat becomes
superior to even the most formidable of the devas, and
may subject and control the lower orders.

382. Q. How many kinds of devas are there ?

A. Three : Kamavacham (those who are still
under the domination of the passions) ; Riipdvachara
(a higher class, which still retain an individual form) :
Arupdvdchara (the highest in degree of purification, who
are devoid of material forms).

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 87

383. Q. Should we fear any of them ?

A. He who is pure and compassionate in
heart and of a courageous mind need fear nothing :
no man, god, brahmarakkhas, demon or deva, can
injure him, but some have power to torment the impure,
as well as those who invite their approach.

APPENDIX

THE following text of the fourteen items of belief which
have been accepted as fundamental principles in both
the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism,
by authoritative committees to whom they were sub
mitted by me personally, have so much historical
importance that they are added to the present edition
of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an Appendix. It has
very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince
Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that
having had the document translated to them, the Chief
Lamas of the great Mongolian Buddhist monasteries
declared to him that they accept every one of the pro
positions as drafted, with the one exception that the date
of the Buddha is by them believed to have been some
thousands of years earlier than the one given by me.
This surprising fact had not hitherto come to my know
ledge. Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse
the real epoch of Sakya Muni with that of his alleged
next predecessor ? Be this as it may, it is a most
encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic world may
now be said to have united to the extent at least of these
Fourteen Propositions.

H. S. O.

FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS

I Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance,
forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without
distinction ; and an unswerving kindness towards the
members of the animal kingdom.

APPENDIX 89

II The universe was evolved, not created ; and its
functions according to law, not according to the caprice
of any God.

III The truths upon which Buddhism is founded
are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in
successive kalpas, or world-periods, by certain illu
minated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA
meaning " Enlightened ".

IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was
Sakya Muni, or Gautama Buddha , who was born in a
Royal family in India about 2,500 years^ago. He is an
historical personage and his name was Sid^hartha
Gautama.

V Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces
desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and
rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow
therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth ; to escape
rebirth, it necessary to extinguish desire ; and to extin
guish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.

VI Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a
necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the
worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an
end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount
need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity
for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance
also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is
only one existence for man, and the other illusion that

~this -one life is -folio wed" by -states of -unchangeable
pleasure or torment.

90 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

VII The dispersion of all this ignorance can be
attained by the perservering preactice of an all embracing
altruism in conduct, development of intelligence, wisdom
in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower
personal pleasures.

VIII The desire to live being the cause of rebirth,
when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected
individual attains by meditation that highest state of
peace called Nirvana.

IX Sakya Muni taught that ignorance can be dispelled
and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four
Noble Truths, viz. :

1 . The miseries of existence ;

2. The cause productive of misery, which is the

desire ever renewed of satisfying oneself
without being able ever to secure that end ;

3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging

of oneself from it ;

4. The means of obtaining this destruction of

desire. The means which he pointed out is
called the Noble Eightfold Path, viz. : Right
Belief ; Right Thought ; Right Speech ; Right
Action ; Right Means of Livelihood ; Right
Exertion ; Right Remembrance ; Right
Meditation.

&'•"• . :-:i L'f:..; v'/icUU; SilJ . -..- ;; -f.h

X Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment,
or the development of that Bu44ha-like faculty which is
latent in every man.

APPENDIX 91

XI The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the
Tathagatha (Buddha) himself, as :•—

To cease from all sin,

To get virtue,

To purifiy the heart.

XII The universe is subject to a natural causation
known as "Karma". The merits and demerits of a
being in past existences determine his condition in the
present one. Each man, therefore, has prepared the
causes of the effects which he now experiences.

XIII The obstacles to the attainment of good karma
may be removed by the observance of the following pre
cepts, which are embraced in the moral code of Bud
dhism, viz : (1) Kill not ; (2) Steal not ; (3) Indulge in no
forbidden sexual pleasure ; (4) Lie not ; (5) Take no in
toxication or s upefying drug or liquor. Five other pre
cepts which used not be here enumerated should be
observed by th se who would attain, more quickly than
the average layman, the release from misery and rebirth.

XIV Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity.
Gautama Buddha taught it to be the duty of a parent to
have his child educated in science and literature. He
also taught that no one should bslieve what is spoken by
any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition,
unless it accord with reason.

Drafted as a common platform upon which all
Buddhists can agree.

H. S. QLCOTT, P.T.S.

92 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

Respectfully submitted for the approval of the High
Priests of the nations which we severally represent, in the
Buddhist Conference held at Adyar, Madras, on the
8th, 9th, 10th, llth, and 12th of January, 1891 (A.B.
2434).

Japan . . |Kozen Gunaratana

\Chiezo Tokuzawa

Burmah . . U. Hmoay Tha Aung

Ceylon . . Dhammapala Hevavitarana

The Maghs of

Chittagong . . Krshna Chandra Chowdry, by his
appointed Proxy, Maung The
Dwe.

BURMAH

Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Burmah, this
3rd day of February, 1891 (A.B. 2434) :

Tha-tha-na-baing Saydawgyi ; Aung Myi Shwebon
Sayadaw ; Me-ga-waddy Sayadaw ; Hmat-Khaya

Sayadaw ; Hti-lin Sayadaw ; Myadaung Sayadaw ; Hla-
Hvwe Sayadaw ; and sixteen others.

CEYLON

Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Ceylon
this 25th day of February, 1891 (A. B. 2434 ; Mahanu-
wara upawasatha Pusparama viharadhipati Hippola
Phamrna Rakkhita Sobhitabhidhana Maha Nayaka
Sthayirayan wahanse wamha.

(Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sibhitabhidhana, High
Priest of the Malwatta Vihare at Kandy.

(Sd.) HippOLA

APPENDIX 93

Mahanuwara Asgiriviharadhipati Yatawatte Chanda-
jottyabhidhana Maha Nayaka Sthavirayan wahanse
wamha — (Yatawatte Chandajottyabhidhana, High
Priest of Asgiri Vihare at Kandy).

(Sd.) YATAWATTE

Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Sripadasthane saha
Kolamba palate pradhana Nayaka Sthavirayo (Hikka
duwe Sri Sumangala, High Priest of Adam's Peak and
the District of Colombo),

(Sd.) H. SUMANGALA

Maligawe Prachma Pustakalayadhyakshaka Surlya-
goda Sonuttara Sthavirayo (Suriyagoda Sonuttara,
Librarian of the Oriental Library at the Temple of the
Tooth Relic at Knady).

(Sd.) S. SONUTTARA

Sugata Sasanadhaja Vinaya chariya Dhammalan-
karabhidhana Nayaka Sahavira.

(Sd.) W. DHAMMALANKARA

Pawara neruttika chariya Maha Vibhavi Subhuti
of Waskaduwa.

(Sd.) W. SUBHUTI

94 THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM

JAPAN

Accepted as included within the body of Northern
Buddhism.

Shaku Genyu (Shingon Shu)

Fukuda Nichiyo (Nichiren ,, )

Sanada Seyko (Zen „ )

Ito QuanShyu ( „ „ )

Takehana Hakuyo (Jodc „ )

Kono Rioshin (Ji-Shu „ )

Kiro Ki-ko (Jodo Ssizan,,)

Harutani Shinsho (Tendhi „ )

Manabe Shnn-myo (Shingon ,, )

ClIITTAGONG

Accepted for the Buddhists of Chittagong.
Nagawa Parvata Viharadhipati

Guna Megu Wini-Linkam,

Harbing, Chittagong, Bengal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM has been compiled from
personal studies in Ceylon, and in part from the
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Vinaya Texts

Buddhist Literature in China

Catena of Buddhist Scriptures -. .

Buddhaghosd 's Parables

Buddhist Birth Stones

Legend of Gautama

Chinese Buddhism

Kalpa Sutra and Nava Patva

Buddha and Early Buddhism

Sutta Nipata

Nagananda

Kusa Jataka

Buddhism

Dhammapada

Romantic History of Buddha

Udanavarga

Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects.

The Gospel of Buddha

The Dharma ..

Ancient India

The " Sacred Books of the East "

Encyclopedia Britannica.

Davids and Olden-
berg.

Beal.

Beal.

Rogers.

Fausboll and Davids.

Bigandet.

Edkins.

Stevenson.

Lillie.

Sir Coomaraswami.

Broyd.

Steele.

Rhys-Davids.

Fausboll and Max
Miiller.

Beal.

Rockhill.

B. Nanjio.

Paul Carus.

Paul Carus.

R. C. Dutt.

Max Muller's
Edition.

C45730040

AUG > 4199T